Humanitarian Catastrophe in Mozambique Mounting Pressure on Neighbors: Catholic Entity

The Thursday, October 20 attack on Mozambique’s ruby mining region has led to the closure of at least two mines causing “hundreds to flee from villages declared as safe by the government.”

Mr. Viljoen said that the monthly food rations provided by the associate body of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) together with Caritas Mozambique “had to be reduced in order to cater for the new arrivals.”

He added, “The situation on the ground is desperate. There are more pockets of displaced people showing up everywhere, and there's no financial resources to feed them.”

In the October 25 interview, the DHPI Director underscored the need for more humanitarian assistance in Mozambique, noting that people in the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Nampula are on the brink of starvation due to the March floods caused by tropical cyclone Gombe, and droughts due to irregular rainfall in the region.

“If you go to places like Corrane and Rapale where the displaced are now showing up in the Archdiocese of Nampula, you will see that the people in the villages who live there, the local population, are no better off than the displaced people. They suffer from extreme poverty. They've experienced droughts and floods,” said Mr. Viljoen.

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He said that the people have not been able to produce crops, adding, “There's famine; displaced people are welcomed initially, but later on there is friction and tension that arises because of scarce resources.”

“We really have to look at including the most destitute members of the host communities in any relief program as well, because the last thing we need now is for these displaced people to be more traumatized or to be driven out of the communities due to lack of resources,” the Director of the SACBC peace entity told ACI Africa October 25.

Such a situation, he said, could lead to violence. “That is a serious problem that's emerging. One million displaced people who have fled from Cabo Delgado is a huge burden to the host communities. And I think this should be on the forefront of every humanitarian agenda,” Mr. Viljoen added.

Sheila Pires is a veteran radio and television Mozambican journalist based in South Africa. She studied communications at the University of South Africa. She is passionate about writing on the works of the Church through Catholic journalism.