Cabo Delgado: “There is no calculated attack on Catholic missions”

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Cabo Delgado: “There is no calculated attack on Catholic missions”

3:40 CAT | 20 May 2020

File photo: DW

Although two Catholic missions in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, were recently attacked by insurgents, Bishop of Pemba Dom Luiz Fernando Lisboa discounts any premeditated attack on the Catholic Church.

Two Catholic Church missions have been attacked by insurgents in Cabo Delgado recently, the first over Easter (April) and the second, on Tuesday of last week (12-05), which destroyed the living quarters in a Benedictine mission.

But the bishop of Pemba does not believe the attacks against Catholic missions are particularly calculated, because other nearby targets are similarly affected, he argues in an interview with DW Africa.

Dom Luiz Fernando Lisboa says the attacks are yet more proof of the worsening insecurity in the province of Cabo Delgado, where multinational natural gas companies are operating. In two and a half years of violence, insurgents have killed at least 550 people, and tens of thousands more have been displaced.

DW Africa: How was the attack on your mission last week in Cabo Delgado?

Dom Luís Fernando Lisboa (LFL): They entered the mission house of the Benedictines – Tanzanian monks who work in our diocese – in the Auasse district, Mocímboa da Praia. They vandalised the house and took the monks’ belongings, including the car. They also burned a hospital that they were building there.

DW Africa: In the face of intensified attacks by insurgents against Catholic missions, do you believe the Catholic Church might end its missions in the province?

LFL: I wouldn’t say that there is a calculated attack on Catholic missions. I think they attacked the neighbourhood, not just the mission. When they attack, they always attack houses, shops, etc. I don’t know if they even knew there was a Catholic mission there. The monks managed to escape, and spent two days in the bush. None of them were hurt. The worst is when lives are taken. Many people died or disappeared. That always makes us very sad. Goods, buildings and cars are lost, but worst of all is the loss of human life.

DW Africa: There is talk of hunger, difficulties, poverty becoming extreme and the humanitarian situation deteriorating. How is assistance provided to the needy?

LFL: The government has tried to do its part. The Armed Forces have recently been strengthened. But the attackers changed their tactics – they started attacking the villages simultaneously, as happened a short time ago. And [the situation] turns out to be much more difficult.

There is now a severe humanitarian crisis: there is hunger, because more than 200,000 are displaced. From Quissanga alone, one of the targets of the attacks, came thousands of people who are here in the neighbouring district of Pemba, called Metuge – home of several campsites for them. Not to mention the displaced people spread throughout the province, in all districts, and even in the capital, Pemba. This makes service [to these people] very difficult. Many people leave home with no or few belongings. They arrive without food. And attending to all these people, in this situation, is not an easy task. However, there are international organisations, like Caritas, that are helping. We have a system in place to deliver food to these people.

Source: Deutsche Welle