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Mozambique: INGD warns of risk of insurgents among IDPS
3:34 CAT | 29 Feb 2024
Photo: INGD
Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD) on Wednesday called on those displaced by the terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado to report the possible presence of insurgents in accommodation centres for IDPs (internally displaced persons).
“We have to continue to be vigilant, to know who is on our side, because, perhaps, when we were leaving Chiúre to come here [Erati], perhaps we were leaving with the insurgents, with those bandits,” said INGD president Luísa Meque at a meeting in Eráti district, Nampula province, with families forced to flee the district of Chiúre in Cabo Delgado province following terrorist attacks in recent weeks.
“We have to reinforce vigilance, [know] who is on our side, who is receiving our support,” Meque stressed.
The president of INGD acknowledged that the food assistance being provided to victims of armed violence in Cabo Delgado was insufficient and should be increased.
“We know that not everyone will be able to have, at the same moment, the support that we are bringing, because there are many of us,” she said.
In view of reports that there are residents of the Eráti district who have also been posing as displaced people in order to receive assistance, the authorities say they will be careful to ensure that only the victims of violence will receive humanitarian aid.
“Only those people who are not from here will receive support or assistance, those ones who left everything in their homes to come here,” she highlighted.
READ: Mozambique: Number of displaced people rises in Nampula province – AIM report
The Mozambican government says that 67,321 people fled armed attacks in Cabo Delgado in recent weeks, adding that some were already returning to their points of origin.
“At this point, we are talking about around 67,321 displaced people, which corresponds to 14,217 families,” Council of Ministers spokesperson Filimão Suaze told the press at the end of the Cabinet’s weekly session.
READ: Mozambique: More than 67,000 displaced by latest wave of insurgent attacks – Government
The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group claimed responsibility for 27 attacks on “Christian” villages in the district of Chiùre, Cabo Delgado, in which it claims 70 people died in recent days.
Through the group’s propaganda channels, which documents these attacks with photographs, the destruction of 500 churches, houses and public buildings is also claimed.
The Mozambican authorities have not commented on the operational situation, but Lusa has in recent days heard, in the village of Chiùre, reports from displaced people arriving in the town about attacks, destruction of hospitals, schools and homes, as well as deaths, caused by the insurgents in various villages in the district.
READ: Mozambique: IS claims responsibility for 27 attacks on ‘Christian’ villages in Chiúre district
Cabo Delgado governor Valige Tauabo told Lusa on Monday that the “macabre” acts that have been plaguing the south of that Mozambican province for two weeks were carried out by “little groups” of “violent extremists”.
Cabo Delgado province has been facing an armed insurgency for more than six years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State, which has led to a military response since July 2021, with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), freeing districts near natural gas projects.
The conflict has already displaced one million people, according to data from United Nations agencies, and around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.
READ: Mozambique: Picking up your relatives fleeing insurgents halfway along the road
Source: Lusa
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