The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, calls for “urgent action” to protect the civilian population in northern Mozambique. In a press release released on Friday, November 13, Chile’s former president said the situation was “desperate” in the Cabo Delgado region, plagued by a spate of attacks by Shebab jihadists claiming to be part of the Islamic State.
Since mid-October the attacks intensify in the Cabo Delgado region. According to the UN, the victims are tens, but there is no reliable figure. Beheadings are also reported regularly. Local and international media have claimed that 50 bodies were found without a head last weekend in a clearing in the Mouidoumb district. An uncontrollable figure again according to Mgr Luiz Fernando Lisboa, the bishop of Pemba, the provincial capital.
“In recent days, there has been a lot of violence and even beheadings, that is a fact, it is true. How? I can not tell, we do not know, everyone is on the go, we can not count. But for example, I was talking to a young person whose brother and uncle were killed. “
“Bodies in the bush”
On the other hand, the bishop of Pemba confirms the influx of displaced people and the lack of funds to come to their aid. More than 14,000 people have arrived since October 16: ashore, sometimes after weeks hidden in the bush. Or at sea with a risk of injury. According to the UN, at least 40 people have been killed by a boat.
Zenaida Machado, who works in Mozambique for NGO Human Rights Watch, recalls that beheadings have been common since the jihadist uprising began in 2017 in this region. She also condemns the lack of humanitarian care for displaced persons:
“When they arrive, there is no government official to help them register them. There is no medical team that can see if they are sick or injured, while they are extremely tired, visibly dehydrated. They spent days at sea without eating or drinking, with only the clothes they were wearing because they sold everything else to pay for their place on the boat. Most of them do not know where their loved ones have been. On these boats there are children who do not know where their parents are, people with disabilities. This is just one example of what we can see, of this humanitarian catastrophe. And there is also what you can not see: before you get up without these boats, they spend weeks in the bush and hide. They say you can see bodies everywhere, in the bush, on farms, until they can board in safe places. ”
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