Africa-Press – Mozambique. The administrator of Quissanga, in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, acknowledged on Thursday that there is not a single piece of state infrastructure in working order in that district, one of the hardest hit by extremist attacks.
“The district does not even have the infrastructure to function. It has nothing,” Sidónio Lindo told journalists in Pemba, on the sidelines of the fourth session of the Cabo Delgado Development Observatory, lamenting the current situation in the district.
“The terrorists have destroyed all the infrastructure (…) and this hurts the functioning of public administration in the district. As a result, we have been working in the city of Pemba for about a year. But efforts are being made to return shortly, even on a tent basis,” he said.
The aim is to try to rehabilitate some space so that state services can gradually resume in the district: “Our goal for this year is to see if we can at least rehabilitate some infrastructure so that we can regain control of the district. Above all, to get the administrative machine back up and running.”
Sidónio Lindo said he has contacted the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to try to get containers in the district so that state services can be set up.
Since October 2017, the gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed rebellion with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State.
The latest major attack took place on 10 and 11 May 2024, at the district headquarters in Macomia, with around a hundred insurgents looting the town, causing several deaths and heavy fighting with the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces and Rwandan soldiers supporting Mozambique in the fight against the rebels.
In 2024, at least 349 people died in attacks by Islamic extremist groups in northern Mozambique, an increase of 36% over the previous year, according to a study released by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS), an academic institution of the US Department of Defence.
The Quissanga administrator explained that currently, only two villages have been completely abandoned, both due to their proximity to the neighbouring district of Macomia, as is the case with Namaluco.
“It is the entry point for terrorists when they leave the neighbouring district of Macomia. So the village is uninhabited. And then we also have another village near Namaluco, which also has no inhabitants due to the movement of terrorists in those two locations. And because it is close to the border between Macomia and Quissanga,” he explained.
He said that state officials and workers have been on the ground, but travelling to Quissanga “in teams”.
“We go there, work, and come back [to Pemba]. So much so that national and foreign government organisations are also operating throughout our district. We are waiting for the creation of conditions, especially for the rehabilitation of infrastructure,” he said.
Given the improvement in security conditions, the expectation is to move forward with some infrastructure this year.
“We think that this year, with the changing situation, we will probably be able to resume the reconstruction of state infrastructure,” he concluded.
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