Over 11,000 victims of terrorist attacks need urgent help in Palma
By Jorge Joaquim
Over 11,000 refugees, mostly children, are sheltering in a primary school after the terrorist attack on the nearby town of Palma, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The refugees are at the Quitunda primary school on the Afungi peninsula close to Total’s natural gas project. About one-third of the 1,452 households are sleeping in the open, it added.
The IOM said that the government was providing some help, but that there was an urgent need for food, shelter and clothing in particular. According to the United Nations, insecurity is preventing its agencies from travelling to the site.
Meanwhile, the government has built 21 villages in Cabo Delgado province for the resettlement of 55,000 people fleeing the terrorist attacks in other parts of the province.
The villages provide basic services such as running water, sanitation, healthcare and education, according to the province’s secretary of state, Armindo Ngunga. However, a study by transparency watchdog the Centre for Public Integrity said that the resettlement villages provided “absolutely nothing except for water supplies and plots for housing construction.”
