Mozambique: IDPs from Mocimboa da Praia eager to return home

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Mozambique: IDPs from Mocimboa da Praia eager to return home

3:15 CAT | 11 Aug 2021

Photo: O País

Since the government announced the retaking of Mocimboa da Praia, some previous residents now living in Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado, have begun to feel impatient to return home.

“We saw Mocimboa da Praia again on the television, which showed the airport, the barracks, the sports club and the port, and we were very pleased with the liberation of our home,” said Ngamo Salamate, a displaced woman who lived in Mocimboa da Praia who survived three terrorist attacks in the village of Ncomangano and the town of Palma.

The news took most of those displaced from Mocimboa da Praia by surprise, and, currently, they are just waiting for the government’s instructions to return to their homes.

“Many of us want to return to Mocimboa da Praia, now we’ve heard that the government has retaken it. I’m looking forward to it myself, and I’m ready to return at any time, even if it’s by bicycle,” former resident Abdala Omar said.

Although the recovery of Mocimboa da Praia was publicly announced by the government, through the Ministry of National Defence, on August 08, some displaced people, unable to forget the terror experienced in recent years, do not yet believe that the insurgents have been comprehensively expelled.

“The first thing we want is to see are our homes and beaches, and taste the fish and oysters that are characteristic of the town, and that’s the only way we can believe that Mocimboa da Praia is free of terrorists,” said Paulo Weng San, President of Association of Naturals and Friends of Mocimboa da Praia, which has called on the government to accelerate the fight against the armed group operating in the north of Cabo Delgado since October 2017.

Occupied on 12 August, 2020, in the third armed attack by the group, Mocimboa da Praia, the town where the first shot in the Cabo Delgado insurgency was recorded, was liberated on Sunday, August 8, the culmination of a joint operation with military support from Rwanda begun in July.

By Hizidine Acha

Source: O País