Mozambique: Almost 900 new cholera cases, one death in north in 10 days
File photo: Lusa
The director of the analysis department of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned on Tuesday that the conflict in northern Mozambique, despite being internationally recognised, has worsened a long-neglected humanitarian crisis.
“Cabo Delgado may not be a forgotten conflict, but it is certainly a neglected humanitarian crisis,” Jonathan Whittall wrote in an article published on the All Africa website, in which he pointed out that the number of displaced people now exceeds 700,000.
“With the attention being paid almost exclusively to ‘fighting terrorism’, the solutions being proposed may once again neglect the urgent need to save lives and alleviate the suffering of communities affected by the conflict,” the activist added.
The reasons for the conflict, he says, “might be multifaceted and complex, but the consequences of violence are straightforward: fear, insecurity and lack of access to basic survival needs, including food, water, shelter and urgent health care.”
The violence, he said, makes it difficult for humanitarian workers to access the places where they are most needed, with the result that the scale of the humanitarian response is “vastly outstripped by the scale of need”.
In contrast, “what seems to be gaining scale is the range of regionally and internationally funded counter-terrorism operations, which can have an even greater impact on vulnerable populations,” Whittall wrote.
“I have seen in many conflicts, such as in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, how counterterrorism operations can generate additional humanitarian needs while limiting the capacity of humanitarian workers to respond” to challenges, he warned.
The problem, he says, is that by classifying some groups as terrorists, it makes it more difficult for aid workers to operate, as aid becomes controlled by the state and the military coalitions that support it.
“Aid is denied, facilitated or offered to increase the credibility of the government, to win hearts and minds in the face of military intervention, or to punish communities who are accused of sympathising with a group in opposition, and the most vulnerable end up being penalised by this approach, which is why organisations like MSF need to be able to work independently,” he said.
For this humanitarian worker, it is in these situations where organisations like MSF are most needed.
“In counterterrorism wars around the world, we often see that the existence of civilian casualties is often justified with the presence of ‘terrorists’ among the populations, in a context where entire communities come to be considered ‘hostile’, which leads to a loosening of the rules of engagement and it is in these situations that we see hospitals destroyed and entire villages razed in attacks that do not distinguish civilian targets from military ones,” he adds.
Therefore, he concluded, “the current focus on ‘terrorism’ clearly serves the economic and political interests of those who are intervening in Mozambique, but it cannot come at the cost of saving lives and alleviating the immense suffering that the people of Cabo Delgado are facing.”
Armed groups have terrorised Cabo Delgado since 2017, with some attacks claimed by the ‘jihadist’ group Islamic State, in a wave of violence that has led to more than 2,500 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and 714,000 displaced people, according to the Mozambican government.
The Mozambican authorities have regained control of the town of Palma. Still, the attack led oil company Total to abandon the gas project site indefinitely, with production due to start in 2024 and on which many of Mozambique’s expectations for economic growth in the next decade are anchored.
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