Mozambique: Families of displaced in Cabo Delgado complain of lack of support

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Mozambique: Families of displaced in Cabo Delgado complain of lack of support

10:20 CAT | 18 Jan 2022

FILE PHOTO - For illustration purposes only. [File photo:Caritas Moçambicana]

Several families of displaced people are complaining of a lack of support in northern Mozambique, after they were sent to resettlement areas in Mecufi, Cabo Delgado, they told Lusa.

“We have been for five months without receiving food and so my family will still die of hunger” said Momade Antumane, 45, married and a father of five children.

The family fled Quissanga and is one of 55 living in makeshift shelters in the 3 de Fevereiro resettlement area, Mecufi district.

The area south of Pemba is expected to host a total of 200 families, but resources are scarce.

After leaving Quissanga with his family, Momade Antumane reports that he sought refuge to the south, in Pemba, the provincial capital, where he was advised to continue the journey to Mecufi.

However, in the resettlement area where he was sheltered there is little more than houses built with the help of Caritas, a Catholic humanitarian organisation.

Antumane says that he already has the machamba (vegetable garden) ploughed, as others have done, but he lacks seeds to throw into the ground and produce food.

“I have a machamba, but we have no maize to sow,” he lamented.

In the same situation is Ali Afido, 38, a native of Macomia, who is seeking to restart life in Natuco, another reception area in Mecufi district, along with 225 other families.

“There is no water. There is no toilet. We are suffering. There is also no good relationship with the owners of the fields”, the landlords of the land for ploughing, he says.

To find food to survive, it is necessary to go out to the surroundings and resort to the help of other families, a fact that makes life difficult for everyone.

“If we don’t leave here, it’s not possible to eat”, he concluded.

The situation was verified on the spot by the director of Caritas in Cabo Delgado, Manuel Nota, who visited on Friday the resettlement centres of Natuco and 3 de Fevereiro.

In those areas, it fell to the humanitarian organisation to build 495 houses to minimise the suffering of the population affected by the war, but other aid is needed.

The UN agencies and other organisations have complained of underfunding of humanitarian aid, which has led to the rationing of food aid so that it can reach more displaced people.

Read: Mozambique: Cabo Delgado returnees lack water

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

The conflict has led to more than 3,100 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and more than 817,000 displaced people, according to Mozambican authorities.

Since July, an offensive by government troops with support from Rwanda that was later joined by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) allowed for increased security.

Source: Lusa