MOZAMBIQUE: ‘Seven years of death and suffering’
A Mozambican bishop has given a harrowing account of the killings, mass displacement and hunger that have afflicted the country over the last seven years, since the outbreak of the ongoing Islamist insurgency.
Bishop António Juliasse of Pemba told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that people in his diocese have experienced hardship and affliction since October 2017.
Bishop Juliasse said that the local community has faced “seven years of displacement; seven years of death; seven years during which people have lived with great suffering; of hunger, because they cannot farm their land due to insecurity; of disease, because there is no access to medication, or because the closest clinic has been destroyed.
“Seven years during which children have not been able to study as they should.”
About 5,000 people have been killed and one million displaced as a result of the violent clashes between insurgents seeking to establish a hard-line Islamic state and the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces, according to reports by ACN.
The fighting has been concentrated around Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado Province in northern Mozambique and affected much of Bishop Juliasse’s diocese.
Extremist groups have tended to target civilian and state-owned institutions, but attacks focused on Christian communities have also been reported.
The bishop said: “The Church continues to do what is in its nature, to be with the people, to help those we can help, and to offer what aid we receive.
“Recently that aid has diminished – but there is always a friendly hand, and for us in Cabo Delgado that has mainly been ACN, who has always come to our assistance at the most critical times, and who is always ready to help us to save the lives of our brothers and sisters.”
ACN’s support in Mozambique has included emergency aid, pastoral assistance and counselling for displaced people, as well as vehicles for missionaries and the construction of homes and community centres.