Violence in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado brings health system to its knees
THE recent attacks in Palma, the town located north-east coast of Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province, illustrate the violence that the population has been exposed to during the conflict.
These have been increasing in intensity and spreading over the last year.
This is according to international humanitarian medical non-governmental organisation Doctors without Borders (MSF), working in Mozambique since 1984.
In Palma, as in many previous attacks, violence-hit members of the community, including women and children, and thousands of people were forced to flee for their lives while others remained trapped in the settlements near the Afungi gas compound (Quitunda and Maganja).
“Those who have returned to Palma city continue to face insecurity,” said the organisation.
The number of people displaced by the conflict in Cabo Delgado is increasing quickly and without halt, with nearly 700 000 people, or nearly a third of the population of the province, having been left destitute.
Many of them endured a difficult journey until reaching safety, often fleeing with just their clothes through the sea or inland through the bush, seeing dead bodies along the way and surviving with the very little food and water they could find, said the MSF.
While humanitarian assistance is largely targeting internally displaced people in temporary resettlement camps, host communities that offer shelter to displaced families struggle to meet their basic needs.
These include food, water, sanitation, protection, and health care, and they often live in precarious, overcrowded and unhygienic conditions that create the perfect environment for the spread of diseases.
“People affected by the conflict in Cabo Delgado have endured extremely high levels of violence and trauma.
“Families have been separated, many have lost dear ones, homes or their sources of livelihood. Even those who have fled are not guaranteed safety and continue to live in fear of further attacks.
“The conflict has had a tremendous psychological impact on communities, however, Cabo Delgado lacks formal
mental health programmes to address these needs,” said MSF.
Dozens of health facilities have been destroyed and others are not functional now in the areas directly hit by the conflict because health staff left.
The organisation has also raised
concerns about the drug supply, saying it was a constant challenge due to dangerous roads susceptible to attack. In the areas where displaced people are arriving, health structures are overwhelmed as they don’t have enough personnel or medicines.
“Critical national health programmes have been disrupted threatening the life and the medical condition of thousands. HIV, TB, malaria, antenatal and routine and cholera vaccinations have been affected.”
MSF has been present in Cabo Delgado since February 2019, responding to the aftermath of Cyclone Kenneth, which made landfall in April 2019.
“Today MSF provides health care, including mental health, to the people displaced by the conflict and to the host communities by supporting health centres and cholera treatment centres and by running mobile clinics. Non-Food Items’ distributions (such as plastic sheets for shelter, mosquito nets, hygienic sets, cooking sets and tools for farming) have also been done for people living in temporary settlements who have escaped from their villages with nothing but their clothes.
“Water supply is organised to improve access to clean water and sanitation is also improved through the construction of latrines,” said the organisation.