Mozambique: Almost half of the drawers in Maputo's HCM morgue inoperable - Carta
File photo: Miramar
Three to four days at sea, often without food or water, in wooden boats loaded with 40 to 70 people; this is the ordeal facing thousands of people fleeing the war in northern Mozambique.
A new wave of displaced people has been arriving in Pemba, the provincial capital of Cabo Delgado, since Saturday.
Many are sailing boats without a motor, explains Manuel Nota, Pemba director of the Catholic humanitarian organization Cáritas, one of the many that offers “reception tea” to mitigate hunger, dehydration and trauma on the beach at Paquitequete.
Waves of displaced persons have landed there periodically since 2017, in a pulse that reflects the worsening of the armed conflict in the north of the gas-rich region.
A glass of hot water, a piece of bread, a hand-span-and-a-half to sit down and take a breath, still not seeing a future, but without immediate fear of dying.
In addition to first aid, humanitarian, religious and other organizations are delivering food, which always seems too little for the need, they report, especially in groups where there are many women and children.
Dozens of businesspeople, mostly from Pemba, have come together to distribute 1,000 meals a day on Paquitequete beach, says Osman Yacob, a businessman and spokesman for the Islamic community.
“We already have a benchmark of 28 days’ meals, served with dignity on plates, with rice and chicken, at a cost of 26 meticais each (less than €0.25).
“They arrive in inhumane conditions, dehydrated and hungry,” he says.
“Sometimes they travel from one island to another, for three to four days,” until they reach the southern tip of the province, Caritas’ Manuel Nota says, consulting the day’s notes.
He receives a call indicating that more boats are arriving at Mecufi beach, further south.
In this latest wave, around 100 boats have arrived on the Pemba beaches, bringing between 4,000 to 6,000 displaced persons, according to organizations contacted by Lusa.
“Unfortunately, this flow may increase,” Osman Yacob says, underlining that more help is needed, “regardless of religion or colour”, not least because these were never divisive factors in Cabo Delgado.
Cáritas in Pemba is preparing to install latrines on Paquitequete beach, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), in a project that aims to improve sanitary conditions and prevent Covid-19.
“The beach is cleaned every morning,” he says, before any food preparation takes place.
Those arriving by boat are helped to locate family members or friends who can take care of them, but many stay in the open on the beach before being taken to the Metuge camp near Pemba.
“The beach is a transit site,” says Manuel Nota, referring to his papers again to show that Pemba is the epicentre of the humanitarian crisis.
Of the approximately 300,000 displaced people that the conflict in Cabo Delgado has already caused, 86,000 are being hosted in the provincial capital by families with already stretched resources, while another 51,000 are in the Metuge IDP camps.
Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique has been the scene of armed attacks for three years. Estimates of the number of deaths range from 1,000 to 2,000.
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