Palma refugees flood city
PETER N’Guila used to have no trouble supporting his family of three on his consultant’s salary. But since insurgents attacked a northern Mozambique gas hub town last month, he has seven more mouths to feed.
Hundreds of people fleeing ongoing hostilities in Palma have been pouring into Pemba, a port city around 250km to the south already bursting with those displaced by previous rounds of insurgent violence and a deadly cyclone in 2019.
About 90% of those arriving in Pemba are taken in by relatives, while others cram into schools, hotels, makeshift tented camps and a sports stadium, said Francesca Fontanini, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
N’Guila’s sister, nephew, their spouses and children found a place in his two-bedroom home, but he is not sure how long he can support them.
“I used to buy one sack of rice, but now I must buy two sacks,” he said. “One kilogram of fish now isn’t enough; I have to buy 2kg.”
His relatives arrived with only the clothes on their backs, he said, so they also need clothing and blankets.
Palma was once considered a refuge for those fleeing violence elsewhere in Cabo Delgado province because of its proximity to gas projects worth $60 billion (about R875bn).
French energy giant Total has evacuated all of its personnel from the Mozambique LNG project located near Palma by sea and air, leaving the security of the project to the local armed forces. On Saturday, South Africa announced that it would assist all citizens wishing to leave Mozambique.
Last week, Pemba’s police chief said the militants had left the town and it had returned under the control of the country’s armed forces. He claimed the government believed there was no risk that the insurgents that had attacked Palma would attack other towns.
“No, life is not normal in Palma. The town has been destroyed. People are still being sent to [neighbouring city] Pemba,” said Julia Wachave, a member of women’s rights group Muleide.
Yesterday, reports said the area was declared “safe” by the army, and a “significant number” of terrorists were killed. However, most countries and international companies continue to pull their workers out of Mozambique.
Insurgents have stepped up attacks in the province over the past year, taking over entire towns for days, and possibly weeks, at a time. The violence has displaced nearly 690 000 people since 2017, when the insurgency began, said UNHCR’s Fontanini.
Pemba, a city of 200 000 in 2017, had already seen its population swell by almost three-quarters by February, according to the UN humanitarian agency Ocha, including 7 400 people who arrived in a week in October.
The city is also still hosting hundreds displaced by Cyclone Kenneth in 2019, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Kenneth destroyed more than 34 000 homes and more than 31 000 hectares of crops, according to Ocha.
Last year, local authorities opened resettlements camps outside of Pemba for the city’s new residents, but only a few thousand have chosen to move, the IOM said. Aid workers who visited the sites say conditions are poor.
Following a visit to one site in March, UNHCR officials described it as lacking food, water, electricity and health care. It was also hard to reach and close to a swamp, leaving residents afraid of snakes, they said.
Nearly 2 000 people had arrived in Pemba from Palma at the weekend, according to the IOM, and more were believed on the way.
The attack on Palma, which began on March 24, has displaced tens of thousands more who scattered into surrounding bush or to the beach, to try to catch boats, aid workers say.
About 1 200 survivors reached Pemba last Thursday on a ferry organised by energy giant Total.