Being a voice for the voiceless

As the conflict continues in northern Mozambique the humanitarian crisis worsens, as hundred of thousands of refugees flee for their lives. Church leaders in Mozambique are committed to helping the poor and being a voice for the voiceless.

By ACN Staff

Refugees in Cabo Delgado province, Mozambique. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

Sine 2017, the northern province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique has been witness to an insurgency by an Islamist group called the Islamic State in Central Africa. Over the course of three years more than 2,000 people have been killed in atrocities. Earlier this month, the conflict reached a new level of brutality, with Islamist insurgence beheading 50 people on a football pitch in the northern village of Muatide in Cabo Delgado province.

This insurgency has led to a humanitarian disaster as up to 500,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. The Church has also become a target of the Islamist terrorists. In the Diocese of Pemba, which is in Cabo Delgado province, one of the most important mission sites of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the diocese was recently attacked. Thankfully, the site had been abandoned shortly before the attack, so no one was killed. Unfortunately, there was widespread damage to the mission. According to Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of the Diocese of Pemba, the attack “totally destroyed, the church, the priests’ house, the sisters’ house, the community radio, the outpatient clinic”.

Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

In response to the growing humanitarian crisis, the Church in Mozambique has been providing food, shelter, and medicine to the needy. In order to help the Church in Her mission to help the poor, Aid to the Church in Need has pledged €100,000 in humanitarian aid. The need is acute. Bishop Luiz Fernando elaborates further: “Over half a million displaced people need everything! They need food, clothes, medicine, pots, they need attention, a place to live, everything. It is a war that has brought much suffering to all of us.” Bishop Luiz Fernando went on further to explain that it is the Church’s mission to poor not only includes providing for their immediate needs but also advocating for them: “The Church has lent its voice to be the voice of the poor, of those who have no time, of those who do not have the opportunity of being in front of a camera, as I am now, and of being able to speak. This is the first work: to speak, to show reality.”

Aid to the Church in Need is committed to continuing our work with the Church in Mozambique in spreading the Gospels and to helping the poor. Bishop Luiz Fernando wished to pass on this message to Aid to the Church in Need’s benefactors during this Week of Witness: “From the bottom of my heart I thank all the benefactors of ACN. Here in the Diocese of Pemba, even before the war, before Cyclone Kenneth, we have been helped by ACN. They have already helped us in supporting the formation of seminarians, in supporting the spirituality and formation of priests and sisters, they have already helped us with cars for our missionaries. At this time of emergency, because of the war, they have already approved emergency aid projects. Thus, my many thanks. May God deeply bless each person who collaborates with this truly missionary work. Thank you very much, may God bless you.”