Mozambique: Over 74,000 students flee violence in Cabo Delgado – Minister

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Mozambique: Over 74,000 students flee violence in Cabo Delgado – Minister

9:37 CAT | 20 Nov 2020

Photo: Notícias

Armed attacks in Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique, have forced 74,149 pupils to flee in three years of conflict, and six teachers have been murdered, the minister for education and human development, Carmelita Namashulua said on Thursday.

The minister referred to the impact of armed violence on education, in a Q&A session in parliament.

The figures presented by the minister are part of the total of 500,000 displaced people due to the conflict, according to official government data, and it is estimated that around half of them are under 18 years of age, similar to the age pyramid of the country and Cabo Delgado province.

“The action of terrorists is putting pressure on infrastructure and education services,” said Carmelita Namashulua.

She said that 1,125 teachers were also forced to leave the areas where they taught in the districts affected by the violence in Cabo Delgado.

The situation also resulted in the destruction of 45 schools and four district education offices in the province.

The minister for education and human development explained that the education services in the areas hosting the war-displaced were geared towards the integration of pupils who had fled the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado.

Carmelita Namashulua also spoke of the effects of armed attacks led by the Junta Militar, a splinter group of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition party, in the provinces of Manica and Sofala, central Mozambique.

Namashulua said that the junta’s action had caused the displacement of 3,086 students and 131 teachers in Manica province.

The governor did not mention the impact of violence in Sofala province.

The armed violence in Cabo Delgado has been going on for three years and is causing a humanitarian crisis with about 2,000 deaths and 500,000 displaced people, without housing or enough food – mainly concentrated in the provincial capital, Pemba.

The attacks by the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta have affected roads and settlements in Manica and Sofala, causing the death of at least 30 people in the region since August last year.

Source: Lusa