Sleepless in Zambézia: Women in Olinda refuse resettlement lands, fear for the future

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Sleepless in Zambézia: Women in Olinda refuse resettlement lands, fear for the future

3:00 CAT | 02 Oct 2018

Photo courtesy of Civilinfo

The women of the island of Olinda, in central Mozambique, have refused to accept the land offered by the government for their resettlement, claiming that it is not suitable for agricultural production, the Civil Society Information Agency (Civilinfo) reports.

The Olinda communities, Inhassunge district, Zambézia province, are being moved to make way for heavy sand extraction by the Chinese-owned Africa Great Wall Mining Development Company.

“The government is forcing us to leave and saying it will compensate us, but it is not money we want but land that will produce as much food as we do now,” a woman from Olinda interviewed by Civilinfo said.

Nobody sleeps

“Nobody here gets any sleep, just at the thought of abandoning our ‘machambas’ and fruit trees to go to a new place where we will be burnt by the sun, because there is no shade there. Our situation is very complicated,” said a woman interviewed by Sekelekani, a Mozambican NGO that is a member of Civilinfo.

The island families say they are afraid even to go work in their fields because of Rapid Intervention Unit intimidation, a UIR detachment having been deployed to the area because of tensions between the community and the Chinese mining company.

“Last July, police fired on defenceless people, killing one dead and injuring several others, as well as detaining people, including a village chief,” the agency writes.

The incident happened when the local residents demonstrated against the plan by district authorities of removing the communities from their land in order to give way to the mining concession.

“When our husbands leave the island to look for means of survival, we are always in a state of panic because we do not know if they will come back home safe and sound,” a woman from Olinda is quoted as saying.

Olinda’s population says it fears for its future, accusing the Chinese company of offering substandard housing and unproductive land to other communities in Zambezia, where Africa Great Wall Mining Development Company owns other mining concessions.

Source: Lusa