Mozambique: Aga Khan Network focuses on supporting civil society in Cabo Delgado

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Mozambique: Aga Khan Network focuses on supporting civil society in Cabo Delgado

3:04 CAT | 16 Jul 2020

File photo: Andre Catueira / Lusa

The Aga Khan Foundation is focusing on helping civil society and communities in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, to address the difficulties of surviving in the region under the dual threat of both Covid-19 and armed attacks.

“Right now, due to Covid-19 and the security situation, we are unable to be present in the communities. However, we are doing work through the roots planted 19 years ago: one of which is civil society,” deputy to the diplomatic representative of the Aga Khan Network Rui Carimo said.

These civil society community programmes “remain in operation and are able to make a contribution to the most vulnerable communities through the training that has been transmitted by the Aga Khan Foundation over time,” he added.

There is also support for local authorities – districts, administrators and provincial government – which “indirectly respond to the needs of the population”.

“We are waiting for the health and safety situation to be ensured so that we can be there to support communities,” Carimo said.

Among the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) programmes in the region is the Agrarian Institute of Bilibiza, managed by AKDN under an agreement signed with the Mozambican government in 2014, which has been introducing new agricultural techniques and carrying out infrastructure projects.

The Agrarian Institute was the target of an attack by armed groups responsible for armed violence in Cabo Delgado on January 29, the same day that the village of Bilibiza in Quissanga district was attacked.

“We have no accurate assessment of the scale of the destruction, because for obvious reasons we cannot go back, but from community reports we know that there was destruction and looting,” Carimo said.

The Institute had more than 350 students, some boarding, who were moved to other educational institutions following the attack and consequent suspension of classes in January.

Rui Carimo noted that the Aga Khan Foundation has been operating in Cabo Delgado for almost two decades, supporting various projects in sectors such as agriculture, food security and health.

Cabo Delgado, where Africa’s largest private investment – for the extraction of natural gas – is advancing, has been under attack since October 2017 by insurgents classified since the beginning of the year as a terrorist threat by Mozambican and international authorities.

The incursions by armed groups in the last two and a half years have already killed at least 700 people.

The provincial capital (Pemba) has been the main refuge for people from the affected districts further north, but some have moved elsewhere, including Nampula, in the neighbouring province.

The number of internally displaced persons due to violence in northern Mozambique has doubled since March and now amounts to 250,000 people, according to the latest information from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Mozambique had by Wednesday afternoon, a cumulative total of 1,330 cases of infection with the new coronavirus, with nine deaths and 375 recovered.

Source: Lusa