Group of Palma survivors thanks Tanzania for support on their return to Mozambique

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Group of Palma survivors thanks Tanzania for support on their return to Mozambique

11:16 CAT | 05 Apr 2021

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: DW]

A group of Mozambicans who fled to Tanzania after the attack on the town of Palma, in the northeast of the country, were returned to Mozambique by Tanzanian forces via a border post far distant from the site of the clashes.

“The Tanzanian authorities welcomed us and gave us food. Then we were investigated [in Tanzanian territory] and taken to Negomane,” in the Mozambican administrative post of Mueda, almost 147 kilometres from Palma, Dinis Liloko told Lusa.

According to Liloko, between 200 and 500 people, including many children, walked to the border with Tanzania after leaving Palma on Wednesday, following the attack on town.

“When we arrived at the border on March 31, we were approached [by the Tanzanians] and taken by boat to a point where we were investigated. But after that, we were immediately taken to Negumane,” Liloko related.

“Our goal was not to stay in Tanzania, but to find a safe way to get to Mueda. They [the Tanzanian authorities] helped us, and we need to thank them,” he added, saying he did not know if more people had used the same route to escape from Palma.

Also read: Tanzania: Mtwara police allays fears over attacks in Mozambique – The Citizen

In Negomano, Liloko said, the group is accommodated in United Nations tents, but warned that a lack of food was causing some people to leave for the district headquarters, a distance of nearly 200 kilometres.

“It is not that there is no food in Negomane, but the cassava leaves [which are common in the region] are dry. These people need more help,” he said.

Negomane, 530 kilometres from Pemba but still in Cabo Delgado, is located on the border with Tanzania at the confluence of the Rovuma and Lugenda rivers.

Lusa contacted the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction, but was unable to obtain any details on the situation of the displaced persons referred to.

The town of Palma, about 25 kilometres from the multinational natural gas project spearheaded by Total, suffered an armed attack on March 24, which Mozambican authorities say has resulted in the deaths of dozens of people and the flight of thousands.

According to an update issued on Friday (April 2) by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), about 9,900 displaced persons, almost half of them children, have arrived in the districts of Nangade, Mueda, Montepuez and Pemba.

Source: Lusa