Mozambique: Minister says situation in Cabo Delgado remains “complex”

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Mozambique: Minister says situation in Cabo Delgado remains “complex”

12:03 CAT | 05 Nov 2020

Photo: O País

Mozambique Interior Minister Amade Miquidade admitted on Wednesday that the situation in Cabo Delgado remained “complex”, with insurgent groups raiding villages in the north of the province in search of supplies.

“The situation remains complex; the war has never been a good thing. We need only look at the number of displaced people who make it to Pemba, with all the attendant risks,” Minister Miquidade told journalists on the sidelines of a public event in Maputo.

According to the minister, the insurgents had intensified attacks on villages further north in the province in search of supplies.

“They are ransacking villages in search of supplies,” Miquidade said, taking the opportunity to offer condolences on the deaths of at least 40 people, including some internally displaced, in a shipwreck between the islands of Ibo and Matemo in the north of Mozambique.

The vessel, which was heading from Palma to Pemba with more than 70 people on board, capsized in bad weather, Pemba mayor Florete Simba Motarua told Lusa on Tuesday.

Other local sources told Lusa that an unknown number of bodies were found on the shores of the island of Ibo, where some survivors sought refuge after the shipwreck.

The capital of Cabo Delgado has since mid-October been receiving waves of displaced persons, escaping to Pemba by boats from new attacks in districts further north in the province.

Official figures put at about 11,200 the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) who have arrived in Pemba since October 16, and officials warn that the city is running out of space to accommodate them.

The 2017 general population census records Pemba as having around 204,000 inhabitants, but, according to Mayor Florete Simba Motarua, the city is now hosting more than 300,000 souls.

The province of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique has been the scene of terrorist attacks for three years now, with estimates of the number of deaths ranging from 1,000 to 2,000.

Source: Lusa