Trauma: People were displaced by violence in Mozambique’s Chiure region last year. (Aldemiro Bande/AFP)
The mental and physical cost to adults and children in conflict and disaster-afflicted Mozambique intensified this week when tropical storm Freddy caused widespread flooding and damaged infrastructure in a country already on its knees.
Downgraded from a cyclone, Freddy led to heavy downpours in the southern and central parts of the country after it made landfall in Vilankulo district in Inhambane province on 24 February, heightening the risk of another cholera outbreak while hampering economic activities and transport.
“People are traumatised, they are scared,” Catherine Gender, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Mozambique, told Mail & Guardian on Monday, referring to concerns broader than flooding in the province.
Three decades after signing a peace treaty that ended a 16-year civil war, the country has experienced cholera outbreaks and severe weather events — killing more than 600 people and requiring humanitarian aid for more than three million in 2019 — while fresh clashes between the rebel group-turned-opposition party Renamo and the ruling government broke out in 2013.
In 2017, insurgents infiltrated the country’s northern Cabo Delgado province, leading to neighbouring countries — including South Africa — collaborating with the local military to fight the siege.
Today, about one million people —half of Cabo Delgado’s population — remain displaced, with the bulk in Montepuez and Pemba, Gender says.
Those who had been abducted or voluntarily fled the Cabo Delgado district during the height of the insurgency in 2020 and 2021 are returning to villages where they are met by derelict infrastructure, limited employment and an internal battle to overcome years-long trauma.
“The conflict is brutal, so people are scared. As soon as they hear that an attack was in the village close by, they will slip out of the accommodation [provided to them] at night. Or they will go to the city where you have security … but it worsens the internally displaced phenomenon.”
Gender said when people do return to their areas, they are faced with schools, health facilities and homes that have been destroyed by the insurgents, or by cyclone Kenneth in 2019, or have been neglected because residents fled due to the fighting.
Aside from the fear and physical hardships, the constant disruption in the daily lives of residents, often accompanied by violence and death, takes an emotional toll.
“Those people often were displaced several times, which accentuates their vulnerability because they settle, they have coping mechanisms, and then they have to [relocate] again because of the conflict or because of cyclone Kenneth,” Gender said.
The Cabo Delgado conflict and the 2013 civil war are reminders of the aftermath of the country’s civil war, which was fought from the late 1970s until a peace agreement was signed in 1992.
“It’s something that [the ICRC] saw in the conflict between Renamo and the government in the 1980s [and] 1990s when children were systematically abducted. The trauma will remain; it might take years to address the trauma of such a conflict that now is lasting five years in Cabo Delgado.”
The ICRC, which has a mandate that includes support and protection for civilians, prisoners and combatants, established a mental health platform in the Cabo Delgado district to help adults, teenagers and children to address trauma.
In a statement issued at the end of 2022, the head of the ICRC’s mental health and psychosocial support programme in the country, Helena Martins dos Santos, summarised the situation by saying: “Most people affected by armed conflict experience some level of psychological suffering, as they have suffered or witnessed violence, loss of loved ones [or] separation from family members. Many people are forced to flee their homes to find safety, travelling long distances in constant fear and vulnerability.”
A woman and her children were evacuated from floods in Boane, Maputo, last month. (Aldemiro Bande/AFP)
Citing data from the World Health Organisation, the ICRC said one in five people in conflict-affected communities live with mental health problems that range from mild depression to post-traumatic stress disorder.
In the midst of severe mental and physical obstacles, Gender welcomes small inroads made by the ICRC and fellow humanitarian organisations.
The ICRC has renovated and opened six health facilities in Cabo Delgado while also carrying its mandate to trace the missing and reunite families. Because the conflict is ongoing, it is not yet possible to determine how many people are missing. However, the ICRC has managed to reunite four families. Gender admits it is “not a lot; we are in the middle of it. But I have to say many were done by the army, by the government, or it was done spontaneously. Like [when] people were released [after being abducted], they could find their relatives even if they were displaced.”
Gender said: “Since the foreign troops came to give a hand to the Mozambican army, some [of the abducted] were released,” of whom many were women and minors. Military forces have also won back cities occupied by the insurgents.
To help stabilise the northern region, joint military efforts between the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Rwanda and Mozambique were initiated. The South African National Defence Force is the largest contributor to SADC’s operation in Mozambique, known as the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique.
“At least [in] parts of the district in Cabo Delgado, the conflict is at a lower intensity. But you still have attacks from the group. It’s more spread in the south now, which was not the case in the past.”
The M&G reported last year that the insurgents had gained an estimated 134km of territory towards Nampula, south of Cabo Delgado, west towards Niassa, and north into neighbouring Tanzania.
Gender said that attacks continue and the insurgents have “a number of targets, which can be military targets, civilian administration targets or the civilians”.
Acknowledging the military’s role in stabilising areas, Gender stressed the absence of a peace process or political process to stop the insurgency.“We can’t say that the peace is there … and there is no political process in view. There is a military solution. Is it sufficient? We can raise the question.”
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