| | Dear John, In our last e-mail from my colleague Margarida Loureiro, you might have read about the situation in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province. Nearly 700,000 internally displaced people are facing unspeakable violence - including beheadings and rape. Yet, this crisis remains a largely invisible and neglected emergency in the media.
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| Since 24 March, thousands of people have fled the latest brutal attacks in the town of Palma and thousands more are thought to be displaced inside the district. |
Maria is a 31-year-old mother of three who has been forced to flee her home now for the second time. Maria was working in the fields, tending to the family’s cassava and rice farm, when her husband phoned to tell her the town was under attack. He told her to take their three daughters and run. Maria fled towards the beach, leaving everything behind. |
| “I walked and swam in the water. I had to get my children to safety,” Maria recalls. “I could see others struggling in the water; some did not make it. It was terrible.” |
| They reached shore and travelled for two days to reach the next town, where she stayed with relatives. |
“We were lucky to have a roof over our heads and food for the children, as many families were just sleeping on the streets with nothing,” she says. She had no word of her husband’s whereabouts or whether he was safe. All communications from Palma had been completely cut off. After three days, the sound of shooting filled the air – it was time to run again. The family left by boat, looking for safety once again. They had already fled their home less than a year ago, due to another deadly attack. |
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This time, they finally arrived in Pemba and found shelter in a transit center, where UNHCR has been providing vital protection services such as psychosocial support and relief items like sleeping mats and blankets. There is, however, still no sign of her husband. With the support of volunteers like Maria, we have also been identifying the most vulnerable people in need of urgent assistance, such as survivors of gender-based violence and unaccompanied children, and we are raising awareness on COVID-19 and cholera prevention measures. But our ability to respond to the growing needs is severely threatened by lack of funds. Your help is urgently needed to respond to this emergency. |
Help us protect the most vulnerable. Help us save lives.
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