Choking off Moz insurgents’ food endangers thousands

Tanzania ’ s barring of food exports into Mozambique out of fear of heavily armed insurgents seizing supplies is sparking fears of a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis.

Doctors Without Borders said this week that more than 400,000 Mozambicans living in its northern Cabo Delgado province had been forced to flee the violence.

Mozambican government forces have waged a three-year war against insurgents who occupy the country’s mineral-rich northern province.

Offshore gas fields, which are being explored by a consortium of international companies, are estimated to be among Africa’s largest.

The insurgents are linked to a division of the Islamic State group operating in Africa, known as the Islamic State Central African Province.

Humanitarian organisations now fear that the barring of food supplies from being exported through the Tanzanian border with Mozambique will worsen the growing security crisis.

UN secretary-general António Guterres expressed shock over the recent reports of massacres in the region and called for an investigation late on Tuesday.

There was no immediate response from the Mozambican government.

On Monday, the BBC reported on the beheading of 50 people over the weekend. The beheadings allegedly occurred on sports fields in the Muatide and Nanjaba villages in Cabo Delgado.

Two weeks ago, Tanzania security forces launched a number of rocket attacks on Mozambican villages in response to attacks on their citizens living in villages along the border.

In its latest monthly report, Cabo Ligado, a conflict observatory group that monitors violence in Mozambique, reported that the Tanzanian government had announced after the attacks it was barring food exports across the border over fears of supplies being seized by insurgents.

Cabo Ligado is a partnership between the International Crisis Group, Zitamar News and Mediafax.

“The road closures pose a problem for Palma [one of Cabo Delgado’s main towns]. It limits the supplies coming into the town, which drives up prices.

“Supply prices are particularly sensitive to the safety of the western route because the other two overland routes into the town — to the south coming from Mocimboa da Praia and to the north coming from Tanzania — are effectively blocked.

Mocimboa da Praia is still a “zone of insurgent control, while the Tanzanian government has banned food exports to Cabo Delgado over concerns that food supplies will end up with the insurgents.”

Alain Kassa, MSF head of mission in Mozambique, said shutting down food exports would severely affect people s ability

’ to access food, especially those living in the Palma district.

He said that according to the latest government figures 435,000 people had been displaced by the fighting. That s almost quarter of “’

Cabo Delgado s population,

’ which is two million people.”

He said the humanitarian crisis in the country s northern

’ region was rapidly worsening. We have had to shut down “and evacuate personnel from two of our projects in Mocimboa da Praia and Macomia because of security threats. In Macomia our health facility was ransacked and burnt down.

“The security situation is such that our personnel have been unable to return there.”

Kassa said in the past 10 days, 12,000 refugees had flocked into Pemba, Cabo Delgado s capital

“’ ”.

Kassa said Pemba s population,

’ which was normally 200,000 people, had swelled by 50%.

“There are now an additional 100,000 people seeking assistance. Our internally displaced person ’ s camps are accommodating 40,000 refugees.

“The attacks that are occurring are seeing these numbers increase rapidly.”

He said food security was not the only concern.

There is also a lack of shelters, “especially tents, which are urgently needed as the rainy season approaches.

Lisel Louw-Vaudran, Institute for Security Studies senior researcher, said the export ban by the Tanzanian government, followed attacks on villages in that country by insurgents looking for food. The area is being

“emptied out of farmers and villagers, with entire villages burnt down. The insurgents, who number several thousand, are now searching for food, which is why they conducted raids into Tanzania

“The food situation in northern Mozambique, which is dire, is worsening because of the growing insecurity, which is escalating as the insurgency grows. ”

She said the shutting of food exports would severely effect an already terrorised population.

“People are increasingly going hungry with reports of many not eating for days. Even the few safe havens like Pemba are in trouble as food becomes scarce.”

Supply prices are particularly sensitive to the safety of the western route because the other two overland routes into the town are effectively blocked