Africa-Press – Mozambique. In this issue
Displaced people
Covid-19
Other news
Thousands still fleeing Palma
The number of war displaced people has reached 732,000, including 83,832 people displaced from Palma. The people are still fleeing Pemba, including 3,685 in the period 16-22 June, according to UN agencies IOM, OCHA, and UNHCR.
Of the 3,685 fleeing Palma in the week, 1,440 reached Pemba, 782 arrived in Mueda, 438 in Ibo and 404 Nangade. Only 28% said they had been displaced only once; the rest had fled several times. Of the arrivals, only 10% are in camps and the other 90% are staying with family and friends. Only 14% want to return to the place from which they fled; he rest want to resettle.
In April 2020 there were 172,000 people displaced by the war and this has jumped to 732,000. Cabo Delgado has “one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement crises,” said OCHA on 21 June.
As of mid-June, there were 157,000 war displaced people in Pemba, according to OCHA and IOM. Neighbouring Metuge with a 2020 population of 97,000 is hosting 125,000 refugees. Ibo had a 2020 population of 14,000, but it is hosting 33,000 refugees. Mueda is hosting 92,000. An estimated 70,000 are outside Cabo Delgado, mainly in Nampula province.
Indeed, there are still 82,000 displaced inside the war zone. As well as the 33,000 in Ibo, there are 44,000 in Nangade, and 9,000 in Macomia. There are also uncounted thousands still in Palma, Quitunda and beach areas further south. OHCA notes that to flee to Pemba by boat is a journey which is “perilous and expensive”, with prices reportedly starting at $50 per person. Government and military forces are also trying to stop people from fleeing, or extract bribes.
Humanitarian agencies have registered 9,600 people “returned” from Tanzania to Mozambique since January. “It is a violation of the principle of … not sending back anyone who is fleeing to seek to save their life,” the head of UNHCR in Pemba, Margarida Loureiro said on 15 June. But Foreign Ministry spokesperson Antonio Machee said that Mozambique had reluctantly agreed to this as long as Tanzania transported the refugees 300 km inland and sent them back to Mozambique in a safe area. (O Pais 11 June)
Seven districts are in the war zone. An 18 June access report shows Palma, Mocimboa da Praia, Muidumbe, Quissanga, and half of Macomia as “hard-to-reach” which means controlled by insurgents. Half of Macomia is considered “hard-to-reach” and half either “accessible” or “partially accessible”. The paved road from Macomia town to Pemba is open. Nangade is “partially accessible”. Ibo can only be reached by boat.
Insufficient funding is a huge problems. “Aid agencies in Mozambique have received just about 11% of the $254 mn required to assist and protect 1.1 million people in the areas of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula. More funding is urgently needed,” OCHA noted on 21 June.
Inflated lists and other scams
The 2020 population of the seven affected war districts was 624,000. Thus there are 108,000 more registered displaced people than the entire population. However, not everyone has fled. There are 82,000 registered displaced still in the seven war districts, and many are staying with relatives. And reports of ongoing fighting suggests many people are still living in the war zone. In particular, there is a significant local population in Ibo, Nangade and Macomia. This suggests that the number of displaced is inflated by 200,000 or more.
Joao Mosca, in an interview with DW (20 May), said “people are registering at more than one site with their families in order to receive more food. The same family can register at several sites in order to receive two or three times more food than that which they would be entitled. Hence, a whole business process can be generated, which is already taking place among the displaced themselves.”
Cabo Ligado (17 June) reports “distribution of food aid in Cabo Delgado continues to be beset by organizational problems and accusations of corruption, to the point where major NGOs are now shifting their approach to aid distribution. The Mozambican Red Cross (CVM) said last week that it would not accept lists of aid recipients from local officials in Pemba.” The CVM provincial delegate in Cabo Delgado questioned the transparency of the lists provided by local authorities, echoing frequent complaints from displaced people throughout the province, and said its volunteers would organise distribution. “Many allege that the lists are used to divert aid meant for displaced people to local patrimonial networks,” notes Cabo Ligado.
Another food aid concern is the appearance of aid parcels for sale on the secondary market. An official from the Christian Council of Mozambique alleged on a television program on 8 June that he had seen cases of rice from the World Food Programme in markets in Cabo Delgado. In Montepuez aid coupons are being sold for $3, instead of being freely distributed, with one refugee saying that she did not have money to buy aid.
Another problem is that many people arriving in Pemba and Metuge have lost all their documents. But when people are stopped on the street, police or army demand documents, and those without documents must pay a bribe. A group at the local Catholic University is helping refugees obtain documents.
Mosca notes that “Mozambique has refused to allow international and national civil society organizations to distribute humanitarian assistance resources directly to the population. It means that the government requires that these resources be turned over to public institutions and the Army to carry out this distribution operation on the ground.”
Land disputes – and will people return home?
Mass displacement in Cabo Delgado has led to endemic land disputes in communities that are hosting displaced civilians, reported a parliamentary commission which visited Cabo Delgado at the end of May. The statement was made by Manuel Ramessane, deputy chair of the fifth commission (Agriculture, Economy and Environment). In one recent example, displaced people in Montepuez district reported being forced to pay locals who claimed to be landowners in order to stay in what was meant to be a government-operated resettlement centre.
In some places permanent houses are being built, including 500 in Corrane, Nampula, 48 houses in Lichinga district, Niassa, and 270 houses in Mecufi, Cabo Delgado. Resettlement villages are being built by the government in the Montepuez and Ancuabe districts, Cabo Delgado.
Mozambican law is designed to protect present occupants to prevent landlessness, and this works against resettlement of displaced people or of those removed by mining projects. Land cannot be sold or mortgaged, so there is no incentive for communities to allocate land for displaced people. Thus negotiations usually involve some kind of other benefit for existing residents, such as jobs or agricultural support.
Nevertheless, Armindo Ngunga, former Cabo Delgado Secretary of State and now head of the Northern Integrated Development Agency (ADIN), said that it expects most displaced people will never return home. And government seems to be encouraging this. Displaced people have asked government officials for documentation certifying the village that they come from and the property they hold there in hopes of recovering that property after the conflict. The government has refused to issue any such documentation. (Cabo Ligado 8 June)
And there is a growing belief that Frelimo wants to clear the land in the war zones, perhaps for oligarchs to take it and make deals with foreign investors, or perhaps for Makonde to move down from the plateau to the coast. President Nyusi suggested on 20 May that displaced liberation war veterans should have special treatment.
People returning to Macomia town are subjected to long interrogations by the security forces to make sure they are not insurgents, and then are forced to pay bribes. (Carta de Moçambique, 14 June)
UN Humanitarian reports
UN OCHA produce frequent, competing and overlapping reports on Cabo Delgado. These are the most useful.
OCHA has a Humanitarian response page http://bit.ly/OCHA-CDg with the most recently updated reports:
Under Latest reports: “Palma displaced” (weekly) and “monthly report”
Under Latest updates from Reliefweb: “Displacement Tracking Matrix – Mozambique” (weekly, from IOM)
Annoying three-step download – click on the report title which opens a new page, click on download, which then opens a link, and click on that.
OCHA Reliefweb has some of the most useful updates on https://reliefweb.int/country/moz but they are two to six weeks behind in their reports.
They have links to: “Cabo Delgado Crisis” (new from IOM), “Cabo Delgado situation” (fortnightly), and “Access snapshot” (monthly and very useful as a view of the zones controlled by insurgents and not accessible).
They also have a link to the “Displacement tracking matrix” (weekly) noted above, which is up to date.
The war
Rwanda already has 200 military personnel in Cabo Delgado, and Zimbabwe has “a few special forces” there, reports Zitamar (28 June)
SADC has set a $12 mn budget for its military intervention, Angolan Foreign Minister Tete Antonio said on 27 June. Of this, $7 mn must come from member states by 9 July, he said. (Further Africa, 29 June) The rest of the money will have to come from other countries, and it is unclear if it will be forthcoming. South Africa, for example, has made major cuts to its military budget and is looking for aid money to pay for its contingent.
Al Shabab razors (seemingly an intrinsic contradiction) on sale in markets in Manica, as well as recent “attacks” on police posts in Tete and Nampula, are concerning the police (Instruction 13 of 22 June, signed by police commander-general Bernardino Rafael). Carta da Mocambique (29 June) notes that the razors have been on sale in Pemba markets since last year, and a Nigerian was recently arrested for selling them in Xipamanine market in Maputo. AIM (29 June) points out that an Alshabab razor just like the one picture can be purchased on the Internet for 91 US cents. A different alshabab razor can be bought from Amazon Germany.
The US’s Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS met in Rome on 28 June, with Mozambique in attendance as an observer. In a statement issued afterward, US Secretary of State (foreign minister in US categories) Antony J. Blinken said “We’ve also held informal discussions among coalition partners on the pressing ISIS threat in northern Mozambique and the steps that we could take there.” Italy’s foreign minister Luigi Di Maio called for a new military task force to counter terrorist threats related to IS in Africa. The conference agreed to Di Maio’s proposal to create a working group on jihadism in sub-Saharan Africa, with the initial task of identifying the threats in the region. (Reuters, US State Department, others 28 June)
Ship owners should stop performing crew changes and Covid-19 quarantine in northern Mozambique, because seafarers are at risk of attack or kidnapping by violent terrorist groups. Changing elsewhere would help prevent hostage-taking from becoming a revenue stream for insurgents, the Norwegian Maritime Unions (NMU) said. The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) supported the calls on 28 June.
Covid-19
$172,000 for three training workshops in Pemba
Is Cabo Delgado’s Covid-19 money going astray? Estacio Valoi, Mozambique’s best investigative journalist, says it is in his article The $100,000 workshops (28 June, in English). From Mozambique’s special Covid-19 budget, $2.4 mn was allocated to Cabo Delgado, but it is virtually impossible to find out what has happened to it. Provincial Health Director Anastaacia Lidimba refused to talk to Valoi.
People in camps for displaced people have respiratory problems that might be Covid-19, but there are no tests and no way of getting people to hospital. At Pemba hospital, free tests cost $55. Masks and gloves are also for sale, in the hospital and on the street in front of the hospital.
But Valoi found one way to check. National accounts show payments to companies, including three in Pemba. One was for $172,000 for three workshops at the Sarima Hotel. The Sarmia said a workshop normally costs $500, but the hotel received $20,000 for the three Covid-19 workshops.
So where did the other $152,000 go?
Police are allowing illegal parties, ignoring all Covid-19 restrictions and joining in the drinking, in Inhagoia market in Maputo. Discos, restaurants and bars function illegally in Pemba. (O Pais, 28 June)
Other publications
Estatísticas da Cultura 2020, Instituto Nacional de Estatística. Nine languages have mother-tongue speakers at more than 3.5% of the population, but 12% of the population has yet another mother tongue. Six main languages are: Emakhuwa 26%, Português 17%, Xichangana 9%, Cinyanja 8%, Elomwue 7% and Cisena 7%. By religion: Cathólic 27%, Islâmic 19%, Evangelical/Pentecostal 17%, Zionist 16%, no religion 14%, Anglican 2%. Also published: Estatísticas de Crime e Justiça, 2020
And some articles elsewhere from the editor
The G7 agreement on climate targets leaves gas and cyclones for Mozambique’s children. London School of Economics (LSE blog), 29 June.
Mozambique: the gas dream becomes a nightmare. Amandla 76, page 36.
Cabo Delgado: “Pior cenario e Mocambique transformar-se no Afeganistao.” Esquerda 20 June.
Turning Mozambique into a mafia, resource-cursed state, The Round Table (Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs), published online 5 June. Formal published version is expensive but my final manuscript is free.
Other news
Standard Bank ban after claims of foreign exchange manipulation
The Bank of Mozambique (BdM) on 23 June barred Standard Bank Mocambique from participating in all the activities of the foreign exchange market. BdM accuses the Standard of market manipulation and also brought legal actions against Standard Bank Mocambique and two of its employees. No reason was made public for the suspension, but Zitamar (24 June) points to speculation that BdM is blaming Standard Bank for recent fluctuations in the value of the metical and that it was improperly using an offshore account to maintain its position in the foreign exchange market.
The bank opened in 1894 in Lourenco Marques and after various takeovers became Standard Totta. It was the only bank not nationalised in the socialist era, making it the oldest private bank in Mozambique. It is one of the six large banks in the country. It controls 45% of the foreign exchange market, and holds the greater part of the deposits in foreign currency.
Reopening a long closed railway.
The Dona Ana Bridge over the Zambezi River between the Sena and Mutarara was, at 3.7 km, the longest bridge in Africa when it was built in 1934. It linked railways in Malawi and Mozambique allowing traffic from Blantyre to the port of Beira. [We took the train in 1981 and the trip up the Shire valley in Malawi is beautiful and one of the great train rides of the world. jh] But the South Africans blew up one of the bridge piers in 1986, closing the line. The bridge was only re-opened as a rail bridge in 2009, for the expanding Tete coal mines.
But the line from Mutarara into Malawi was never reopened. Work has finally started to re-open this line, rebuilding 44km to Vila Nova da Fronteira at the Malawi border, and the remaining 71km stretch from the border to Nsange-Bangula in Malawi.
Maputo is getting water from the Corumana dam, as the final links have been opened. A 113 km pipe from the Corumana dam was built to Machava and Guava, where distribution centres were built, plus a treatment plant in Moamba, feeding a 360 km domestic distribution network. Over 465,000 residents of 15 neighbourhoods now have a better water supply.
By
Joseph Hanlon
