Covid-19: Bishop warns of vulnerability in province of Cabo Delgado | Watch

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Covid-19: Bishop warns of vulnerability in province of Cabo Delgado | Watch

3:03 CAT | 31 Mar 2020

Photo: Rádio Sem Fronteiras TV Pemba

The bishop of Pemba, northern Mozambique, warned of the vulnerability, given Covid-19, of the populations of Cabo Delgado, where groups have been carrying out armed attacks since October 2017.

In a message that Lusa accessed on Monday, Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa said that this is not the time for concerns about the market and the economy, suggesting isolation to prevent the outbreak of the disease in Mozambique.

“It is time to isolate because what matters in the first place is human life,” he said.

Until this Sunday, Mozambique had eight confirmed cases of infection by the new coronavirus, responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic.

For Luiz Fernando Lisboa, the province of Cabo Delgado is already facing several challenges, including reconstruction after the passage of cyclone Kenneth in April last year, and insecurity, with the record of armed attacks since October 2017 that have caused the death of at least 350 people.

“Here in Cabo Delgado, we have had cyclone Kenneth which killed dozens of people and displaced thousands of families, we are facing a war which has claimed hundreds of human lives in the last two years. We have over 200,000 internally displaced people. We need the solidarity of all people of goodwill,” the bishop said.

Cabo Delgado province has been the target of attacks by armed groups that international organisations classify as a terrorist threat and which in two and a half years have already claimed at least 350 lives, in addition to 156,400 people affected with loss of property or forced to abandon their homes and lands in search of safe places.

Last week, an alleged jihadist activist justified the attacks by armed groups in northern Mozambique with the aim of imposing Islamic law in the region, according to a video distributed on the Internet.

It was the first message issued by the perpetrators of the attacks that took place two and a half years ago in Cabo Delgado province, recorded in one of the villages they invaded.