The non-governmental organization (NGO) Ajuda em Ação warned yesterday that the war in Cabo Delgado is altering the territorial and demographic planning of the province, highlighting the possibility that the violence is linked to "extractive interests".

"The war is changing the territorial and demographic order of Cabo Delgado, leading hundreds of thousands of displaced people to abandon their livelihoods," says an Aid in Action report quoted by Lusa.

The NGO's research, produced over a period of one year, considers that "one cannot ignore the connections between the displacement of populations, economic interests and the geostrategic importance of the province, which has strong extractive potential and serves as a legal and illegal trade route due to its privileged location on the Mozambique Channel".

The NGO also warns of an alleged "militaristic focus" in the efforts to stop the war, in a province with a history of "slow and structural conflicts" over the last 100 years, namely the wars of colonial occupation, of liberation against the Portuguese colonial regime, the civil war and the current conflict.

"This period, just over a century, is extraordinarily short for territorial, social and mental stabilization processes to take place and be established, enabling the creation of resilient alternatives to the use of violence in conflict resolution and social stabilization," reads the NGO document, which is quoted by Lusa.

According to the NGO, "the constant violence has weakened the individual and collective capacities of the people of Cabo Delgado". On the other hand, says Ajuda em Ação, the model of humanitarian support promoted during the conflict has led to dependence on the population and also on the authorities, who have already received millions in international support to deal with the humanitarian crisis that has arisen.

"This humanitarian operation is generating dependencies not only in Mozambique's public authorities, but also in the populations suffering from the conflict, feeding ways of life where people are conditioned by a distributive economic model instead of models based on encouraging productivity through the generation and use of their capacities," the document states.

Speaking to Lusa, the director-general of Aid in Action in Mozambique, Jesús Perez, said that the priorities now must be to guarantee security in the gradual return of the population to their areas of origin, as a result of the stabilization of the situation, and to ensure that the population has the capacity to produce autonomously.

"We need to promote people's skills so that they can engage in different aspects of the labor market [...] We mustn't forget that 80% of the population in the province is rural," concluded Jesús Perez.

The province of Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed insurgency for five years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

The insurgency has led to a military response since July 2021 with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts near the gas projects, but new waves of attacks have emerged in the south of the region and in the neighboring province of Nampula. (Lusa)