Internal displacement and return in Mozambique

Núria López Torres and Agus Morales

he tropical paradise of Cabo Delgado, in northern Mozambique, is the scene of a conflict that has forced nearly a million people from their homes. The region has attracted attention for its natural resources: gold, rubies, graphite, and natural gas. Since 2017, Islamic militant groups under the name al-Shabaab have fought against Mozambican and foreign security forces from Rwanda, South Africa, and other nations. The conflict has isolated the north from the south, home of the nation’s capital, where protests and political instability have also grown in the wake of last October’s elections.

Thousands have returned to their homes in Cabo Delgado, but, according to the United Nations, more than 670,000 people remain displaced. Most of the people photographed and interviewed for this story are patients of the NGO Doctors Without Borders (DWB), living either in the town of Mocimboa da Praia or the nearby displaced persons camps of Lyanda and Nandimba.

They have witnessed beheadings, kidnappings, and the destruction of their homes, which have left them with both physical and psychological wounds. One man, who fled on foot with nothing but the clothes on his back, wrestles with the trauma of displacement: “My heart tells me to go back home, but the war hasn’t ended…. When I dream, it’s about the pain. I dream that they burn my house and I have to flee.”

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/crisis-paradise

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