The 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.”
Text by Augs Morales, photos by Núria López Torres
ABOVE: Buckets lined up at the water point in the Lyanda camp reflect the shortage of water that plagues the Mueda district, where the camp is located.
ABOVE: A fisherman pulls his boat on a beach in Mocimboa da Praia. Fishing is one of the main livelihoods of the population in these areas. The city was completely emptied when it was taken over by Islamic militants, then recaptured by Mozambican and Rwandan forces. Two years later, fishermen are returning, and the catch is better than it has been in years.
ABOVE: Many of the families in the Nandimba camp want to be self-sufficient and cultivate their own plots of land (known as “machambas”) near their shelters.
ABOVE: Two women walk past one of the many houses that were destroyed by the militant groups that took the coastal city of Mocimboa da Praia. Mozambican and foreign soldiers, especially Rwandans, are still deployed in the area.
ABOVE: Teresinha Bies Mulundi, fifty years old, lives in a tent in the Lyanda camp with her husband and two of her children. “The militants kidnapped my daughter, tortured her, then released her, and finally took my son. I haven’t heard anything from him since."
ABOVE: Fernando Rafael Shuk, who has sought refuge in the Nandimba displaced persons camp, explains how the militants attacked and pursued him. Fernando fled from town to town with his wife and son. His wife was killed, his son lost, and he bears scars from gunshot wounds inflicted by his pursuers. He only found peace when he reached the Nandimba camp.
ABOVE: Lucia Lorenzo has cared for her sixteen-year-old niece, Josina Netu, since Josina was a year old. They fled on foot after militants burned houses in their village.
ABOVE: Amélia Agostinho Meteus is the director of the school in Mumu, near Mocimboa da Praia. The school was destroyed by militants, but they are now trying to resume classes. The lack of a building is not the only obstacle: primary-school students have seen violence, even murder, which has marked them and made it difficult to learn as they did before.
ABOVE: A destroyed church in Mocimboa da Praia
ABOVE: Eight-year-old Zara Rashidi, pictured here with her paternal grandmother (her mother was kidnapped), suffers from diabetes. In the midst of the conflict, her access to vital twice-daily treatments was sometimes in doubt. Now, she visits the DWB health center in Mocimboa da Praia for her medical care.
