The permanent secretary of Mocímboa da Praia today called on the population to wait for government guidelines to return to the region, noting that terrorism has not yet been eradicated in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.

"People are returning and we think that, maybe, they are not understanding our messages, appealing to them to wait a little longer," said João Saraiva, permanent secretary of the Mocímboa da Praia district, quoted today by Radio Mozambique.

Mocímboa da Praia was the district in which armed groups carried out their first attack on October 5, 2017, and its headquarters town was long described as the "base" of the rebels.

After more than a year in rebel hands, Mocímboa da Praia was looted and almost all public and private infrastructure was destroyed, as well as energy, water, communications and hospital systems.

In total, some 62,000 people, almost the entire population, have left the coastal town due to the conflict over the past four years, most notably the mass escapes that occurred after rebel actions intensified in June 2020.

For the permanent secretary of that district, although the region has been recovered by government forces, the return of the population should be gradual and under the guidance of the government, which continues to make efforts to rehabilitate basic infrastructures and ensure the safety of the place, as terrorism has not yet been eradicated in Cabo Delgado.

"We need a little patience from the population," stressed the district's permanent secretary.

It should be noted that there are about 800,000 internally displaced persons due to the conflict, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and about 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.