Religious Leaders Remember Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado, A Conflict The World Forgot

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(OPINION) It is befitting that religious leaders in Southern Africa are now turning the spotlight on Cabo Delgado, a region in Mozambique where ISIS linked terrorists are wreaking havoc, killing, pillaging and kidnapping women and girls. Amnesty International has described violence in the region as the conflict the world forgot.

In a statement issued on March 4, the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa (FOCCISA), which brings together 12 national Councils in East and Southern Africa, said Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado crisis was “an African burden.” They appealed for urgent measures to end the bloodshed.

“The insurgency in Northern Mozambique is not just a Mozambican problem; it is a Southern African regional emergency, thus an African burden that cannot be globally ignored,” the statement said. 

According to the NGO ACAPS, an Islamic extremist armed group has been launching violent attacks on civilians in the northern province of Cabo Delgado since October 2017. It says that violent incidents involving the group, known as Ahlu Sunna Wal-Jama, have been increasing, with incessant attacks on civilians, government forces and military installations. 

The group’s activities have been concentrated on the coast of Cabo Delgado, from Pemba to the Tanzanian border. 

“The government’s response, however, has led to further human rights abuses. Government forces have detained journalists for covering events in Cabo Delgado and subjected civilians suspected of supporting the group to searches, looting, and arbitrary detention,” ACAPS said in a statement.

On March 5, Amnesty International called the area “Forgotten Cape” and said that after suffering decades of under-investment, government negligence and crushing poverty, the province of Cabo Delgado was now the site of a raging insurgency. In the poorest province in Mozambique, thousands of lives have been claimed by the violence. Towns and villages are in ruins. 

“Fighting has intensified since an armed group locally known as Al-Shabaab (unrelated to Al-Shabaab in Somalia) attacked the northern port town of Mocímboa da Praia in October 2017, causing widespread destruction, mass displacement and death, and untenable humanitarian conditions for those who have fled,” Amnesty International said.

Survivors interviewed by Amnesty International talk of horrific abuses with the fighters deliberately killing civilians, burning villages and towns and committing heinous acts of violence with their machetes. These attacks happen with such regularity that residents use two separate words — “beheaded” and “chopped” — to differentiate between the methods of murder; the first is a beheading, the second a quartering, as one would cut apart an animal being butchered.

“Fighters have also abducted young women and children, including girls as young as seven,” Amnesty International said. “Most often Al-Shabaab targets teenage girls, though boys are also taken to be made into new fighters. Further investigation is needed into the scale of these abductions and the violations that Al-Shabaab has committed against children they have captured, including sexual violence and potential use in hostilities.” 

It is saddening that as all this takes place, the world seems content to move forward without taking action. It is unacceptable that we receive news in real time of the horrors committed against the people of Mozambique and nothing seems to be done. 

The children of Cabo Delgado will judge us harshly when they come to learn of the world’s indecisiveness when they were faced with these unspeakable horrors.

FOCISSA reports of horrible beheadings of people, collection and trafficking of parts of human bodies and the large-scale displacement of populations into poverty as refugees in neighbouring provinces; all yearn for intervention. As the prophet Isaiah says in the name of God, "He saw that there was no one and was shocked because there was no one to intervene" (Isaiah 59:16a).

“As FOCCISA, we are moved by Christ's compassion for these fellow citizens of the world. The people of Cabo Delgado are experiencing a major humanitarian crisis and we are addressing various bodies and institutions. We seek to broaden the message that the insurgency in northern Mozambique is not just a Mozambican problem; it is a Southern African regional emergency, thus an African burden that cannot be globally ignored. In our compassion for these people, we recall the words of the Gospel in Matthew 9:36 that states that the people “fainted and spread out like sheep that had no shepherd.” 

Hopefully, the world will be moved by the plight of the wretched of Cabo Delgado and help them find and sustain a more dignified life.

Tom Osanjo is a Nairobi-based correspondent for Religion Unplugged. He is a former parliamentary reporter and has covered sports, politics and more at Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper.