Mário opens the door to find 47 people seeking refuge – Memba headquarters town, Nampula province:

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Mário opens the door to find 47 people seeking refuge – Memba headquarters town, Nampula province:

4:45 CAT | 21 Sep 2022

Map: Google Maps

On the 13th of September, 60-year-old Mário Napula opened the door of his house to find 47 people seeking refuge from rebel attacks in Chipene, Memba district, Nampula province.

“I took in 47 people, mostly children,” he tells Lusa, sitting at the entrance of the house in Memba town, Nampula province, a new target in the insurgency that began in Cabo Delgado five years ago.

They were displaced, their villages razed to the ground, and were seeking safety. But there is not enough food for all of those now sitting in Mário’s small backyard.

Nine older people in the group went to Nacala, the nearest town, to seek help. The other 38 are still in the house, almost two weeks after the attack, surviving on what they can buy from street stalls with Mário’s pension.

“I couldn’t close the door on them,” the former teacher says.

“I just have to thank this Papa. Thank you very much,” says 38-year-old Ginito António from Chipene.

Ginito recounts the scenes of panic and terror that triggered the mass flight. The invaders set fire to homes and killed several people, including an Italian nun murdered at the local Catholic mission, she says.

READ: Mozambique: Italian Comboni nun killed in attack in Chipene

“I was at the well, drawing water with my wife, when they attacked. As I was returning to our house, I saw the neighbour’s house on fire. I ran home but couldn’t find the rest of my family, who had already run away. We also ran away,” Ginito says.

Today, along with the rest of the refugees at Mário Napula’s house, he wants to forget the despair he felt during the attack.

He wants to stay in a “safe place”, like the one he found for his family in Memba, even if the conditions are not the best.

So 38 people share one toilet and the five ‘bedrooms’ that already extend into the backyard, living in precarious conditions and without knowing where their next meal will come from.

Most of the group are minors, forced to live on a diet made up almost exclusively of cassava, an abundant food in the region.

READ: Terrorism spreads to Nampula: “We cannot control the displaced.” – DW

Thousands of people have left places affected by the insurgency in northern Nampula, such as the districts of Erati and Memba, since the beginning of September, following news of the attacks.

Many fled the district headquarters town for Nacala, fearing the eventual arrival of the rebels.

Mário himself thought of fleeing, and he only didn’t leave because those already displaced were knocking on his door.

“Like many people here at the district headquarters, my children also fled. These displaced people arrived as I myself was getting ready to leave, but I couldn’t abandon them,” he added.

Despite the panic in Memba and Eráti, the situation in Nampula province is now described as “stable”, with the Defence and Security Forces in “intensive deployment” to stop the rebels, provincial Secretary of State Gondola Mety told Lusa.

According to preliminary data, the new incursions displaced close to 10,000 people in the district of Eráti alone.

READ: Mozambique: Nampula provincial government beefs up security after attacks

Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas, but terrorized since 2017 by armed violence, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

The insurgency led to a military response a year ago with the support of Rwandan forces and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts next to the gas projects.

There are about 800,000 internally displaced people due to the conflict, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and about 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registry project.

Source: Lusa