Cabo Delgado experiences hopelessness after 5 years of conflict in Mozambique

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Mass beheadings, kidnappings of children forced to become combatants, women forced to have sex in exchange for food or transport, entire villages burned, families torn apart on the run. The terrible reports come from Mozambique, a Portuguese-speaking African country that has been experiencing, for five years, a conflict as brutal as it is ignored by most of the planet.

The attacks, carried out by jihadist groups linked to the Islamic State, began on October 5, 2017 in the village of Mocímboa da Praia and spread to several points in the Cabo Delgado region, in the northeast of the country, and to the neighboring provinces of Niassa and Nampula. . Since then, at least 4,000 people have died and 1.5 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

Last year, other countries on the continent, including Rwanda and South Africa, sent troops to help Maputo defend the territory, and the Mozambican government has been saying throughout this year that the main insurgent groups have been defeated.

But attacks carried out by smaller rebel cells still terrorize the population of Cabo Delgado and its surroundings, and almost 1 million people are in a situation of forced internal displacement – ​​that is, outside their homes, living in precarious settlements. More than 80% of them had to move at least twice in these five years, facing strenuous and risky journeys for hundreds of kilometers on foot.

It is in this difficult context that the Brazilian psychologist Tatiane Francisco works, assisting survivors of these traumatic experiences, which multiply with the prolongation of the conflict. Some of them witnessed cruel killings, saw their homes burned or lost contact with relatives.

Manager of mental health activities in Cabo Delgado for the international organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Tatiane told Sheet what he has seen and heard from the residents of the Mozambican province.

In emergency contexts, when everything is lacking, taking care of mental health may not seem like a priority. Why is it important to offer psychological care to victims of a conflict like the one in Cabo Delgado? We are talking about people who have had traumatic experiences, from a context that also affects mental health. It really lacks access to basic necessities such as clean water, shelter, sanitation and food. And the health needs in general are very great: there are many cases of malaria, women with difficulty following pregnancy and childbirth. But you can’t think about health without considering mental health — whether it’s a natural disaster, an epidemic or a war.

How does the conflict impact the mental health of the population in this area of ​​Mozambique? Many arrive with problems with anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder. Some witnessed the death of family members, suffered physical or sexual violence, had their homes destroyed and had to leave everything in search of safety. Our beneficiaries report that they are always worried. When will they be able to return to their lands? Will there be new attacks? Will they survive?

This abandonment of the previous life, the dangers along the way, the uncertainties, the lack of resources, the difficulty of integrating into the community where they arrive, the experiences of mourning, of missing family members, the fear… All this leaves people in a constant state of alert. and it is very harmful.

Many of them need to migrate multiple times. How does that affect them? We humans don’t make a home instantly. When you are constantly on the move, when you are constantly in survival mode, you are not building a home, a sense of belonging, of stability. Being in constant movement prolongs the feeling of insecurity, of dissatisfaction with life, with the twists and turns that life has taken.

The conflict is completing five years. What is the weight of this for the population? Prolonging the conflict drains people’s strength. They are always prepared to flee, ready for the next move. It is a feeling of hopelessness, of those who do not have the expectation of a stable and secure future.

Although there is a desire —we can see in people’s reports that the desire for this all to end is still present, to return to their land, rebuild their lives—, it is a very prolonged mourning of everything that has been lost all this time, not only goods or people. It is the loss of a whole way of life, of security.

What kind of help can you offer to this population? We can strengthen their coping strategies for the circumstances that life brings them. We try to engage them in activities that give them pleasure, strengthen their hopes, positive emotions, show how they can produce self-care in mental health. We have individual care and it is extremely necessary, but we think about promoting mental health in several ways, with collective recreational activities for children.

There are many malnourished children, so we teach mothers the importance of psychostimulation for their development. Among the displaced, we have dynamics to strengthen their social involvement with this new community.

Is the displaced population already able to return to their homes? Some yes. In Mocímboa da Praia, for example, one of the first places affected by the conflict, residents are already returning. But it’s a return to a place with a lot of destruction. They return, but find a place without the basic structures that make life in a city possible: clean water, food, shops, livelihoods. They return to cities that need to be rebuilt.


conflict numbers

  • 946,508 people in situations of forced internal displacement were registered in June this year, an increase of 21% since February
  • 17% they were moving for the first time, 53% for the second time and 30% had moved at least three times since 2017
  • 55% they are children, 24% are women and 21% are men
  • 212 locations host internally displaced persons from the conflict
  • 13,654 people were displaced by the conflict in just 1 week (10-16.Aug.22)
  • 62% they moved walking, 36% by bus and two% boat
  • 37% left the place where they were due to attacks and 27% for fear of attacks

Source: IOM (International Organization for Migration)


Chronology

  • 2017 First attacks by the jihadist militia Ansar al-Sunna hit police posts in Mocímboa da Praia
  • 2018 Attacks such as the beheading of children are blamed on Al-Shabab, a terrorist group founded in 2015 (no relation to the Somali group of the same name)
  • 2019 Islamic State announces that it is also present in Cabo Delgado
  • 2020 Mocímboa da Praia is captured by an attack by land and sea. The rebels destroy government buildings and leave the city the same day; insurgents execute 52 youths who refused to join them, in a massacre in the village of Xitaxi
  • 2021 Terrorists attack the city of Palma, and the French company Total ends the exploration of gas fields in the region; Mozambican army launches offensive to regain control over the area, and troops from countries like Rwanda and South Africa form a regional force to help the Maputo government
  • 2022 Attacks intensify in the south, near Metuge, and in neighboring Nampula province; government says major terrorist groups have been contained, but there are still attacks by smaller organizations; number of internally displaced people exceeds 900,000

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