Mozambique attacks: Anguished families watch out for boats arriving in Pemba

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Mozambique attacks: Anguished families watch out for boats arriving in Pemba

11:29 CAT | 29 Mar 2021

Image: Twitter

“Help me find my son,” says a tearful José Abebe in the port of Pemba on Sunday morning, hoping to find his offspring among the survivors of the Wednesday attack on Palma in northern Mozambique.

José, brandishing a photo he shows to those passing by, is among dozens of family members awaiting the arrival of the Sea Star 1, the vessel Total has used to evacuate 1,300 people (not the 1,800 initially announced) from the gas project site on the Afungi peninsula on Saturday.

José says he is already “displaced”, having fled the armed attacks when rebels attacked Macomia in May 2020, seizing the district headquarters for a few days.

“It is the second war that my son is facing. He faced it in Macomia, walked five days in the bush. He saved himself, was asked for his job, and again this thing [the violence] has found him,” José says, visibly moved.

“I ask for your help,” he repeats, photo in hand.

José’s son works at the restaurant at the Amarula Hotel in Palma. The building gave shelter to about 200 people of various nationalities, workers at companies linked to the gas projects, and was targeted by the armed insurgents who attacked Palma. At least seven died during one of the rescue operations.

Carlitos Adamo is waiting for his cousin, a bank clerk in Palma at one of the institutions that various eyewitness statements say has been destroyed by the insurgents.

“I hope he’ll be in this next group,” he tells the journalists waiting at the port entrance.

Patrício Amade lives in Palma with his whole family, and was in Pemba attending the funeral of a relative when the attack happened. He has been separated from them ever since. “I came here because I want to locate my family. I have had no contact since Wednesday,” he says, trying to keep his hopes up.

But no family members arrived on the ship that arrived in Pemba around 10:00 a.m. (9:00 a.m. in Lisbon), only Afungi workers and other employees of international companies linked to the project – both Mozambicans and other nationalities, including Portuguese.

Another ship is on the way, however, this one with more ordinary citizens and state officials, those gathering in the port report, all the while watching the clock and planning to return to the pier in a few hours to spend the afternoon watching the horizon.

All the people transported on the ship that left Afungi on Saturday afternoon and arrived in Pemba this Sunday morning were transported in the early afternoon from the port to pavilions near the provincial capital under police escort, there to be registered.

A source from oil company Total told Lusa that the operation was going smoothly.

Pemba Airport will then serve as a departure point for all people to travel to their destination.
The arrival of people by ship on Sunday and their transfer onwards from there took place under heavy security, whole areas being closed to journalists by the Defence and Security Forces (FDS).

Some people approached by Lusa outside the closed areas declined to provide information.

The district headquarters town that houses the gas projects in northern Mozambique was attacked on Wednesday by insurgent groups that have been terrorising the region for three and a half years.

Watch the report by SABC News below “Mozambique Attack | Some survivors evacuated from Palma: Paul Fauvet”