Promote dialogue

Families hosting people displaced by the war in Cabo Delgado should be included in packages to support the development of those suffering from violence, the apostolic administrator of the diocese of Pemba argues. “All interventions must integrate aspects of good coexistence between the displaced people and the locals. Support should not be channelled only to displaced people, totally ignoring the local population,” Dom António Juliasse Sandramo said. The bishop was referring both to the “allocation of infrastructure” – such as land and building materials for houses – and to other “development benefits”, which must be shared between both the displaced and local residents. Dom Juliasse was speaking to Lusa after on Friday meeting consultants from the Integrated Northern Development Agency  (ADIN), a state entity that is drawing up plans for the social and economic development of Cabo Delgado,[Nampula and Niassa provinces ]. According to Dom Juliasse, from the perspective of the church, ADIN should contribute to good coexistence between displaced people and locals. “The need for security” is “supreme”, and this indicates as a priority “that the military conflict in Cabo Delgado does not continue to spread”.

The bishop said that promoting dialogue with and within Muslims is one of the keys to curbing armed violence, and urges “dialogue with Muslim brothers and [among] themselves, in their various aspects and families, [so that] they also find ways to talk to the youth and demonstrate that the true face of the Islamic religion does not include violence”.

“Violence and extremism are not the true face [of Islam],” he stresses. “We are all together in this search for peace,” he said. Dom Juliasse also argued that, in the absence of security, investment withdraws, citing the current moment, when several projects in Cabo Delgado have stopped because of armed attacks by insurgents. “If there is no security, it is difficult to attract investment. Some investments have stopped precisely because of insecurity,” he added. Armed groups have terrorized Cabo Delgado since 2017, with some attacks claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State. Attacks and clashes with the Mozambican military have already caused more than 2,800 deaths according to the ACLED conflict registration project and 714,000 displaced people according to the Mozambican government.