The recovery of Mocímboa da Praia, a district of Cabo Delgado, more than a year ago by Mozambican jihadists, was celebrated by displaced people in various shelter camps in and around Pemba, who continue to wait for the announcement of their return to their home town.

The recovery of the town, with a strategic port and airport for the northern region of Cabo Delgado, is seen by the displaced as "a visible achievement", and they want "definitive peace" in the areas affected by attacks from the group linked to the Islamic State.

"We want to thank this recovery" of Mocímboa da Praia, Valério Amade, a displaced person from Mocímboa da Praia who is staying in a shelter in Metuge, told VOA.

Return

"We want ultimate peace. There can be no more threat. The population must live freely as they did before," Amade said.

The restrictions imposed by the measures against coronavirus, Amade continued, prevented the collective celebration of the recapture of the town, the most urbanized in northern Cabo Delgado.

Another displaced person, Sulemane Adir, said that the recovery of Mocímboa da Praia, a place considered a bastion of Mozambican jihadists, "will calm" the group's onslaughts and "allow people to return home."

"We were already praying for that: to return home. Home is home, even staying without doing anything is better than staying in your home than being displaced on foreign land," Sulemane Adir told VOA, adding that "the displaced are celebrating" in Montepuez.

Others displaced in Pemba, the capital, have also expressed their satisfaction, looking forward to the reopening of the only tarred road, which connects Pemba to Mocímboa da Praia, as well as the order that will allow them to return home.

Threats and dialogue

However, the interviewees warned of the risk of threatening the population by the Defense and Security Forces (DSF), which has caused the largest wave of displaced people and, called on the authorities to monitor the process of returning the population to prevent infiltration by rebels.

"We want to appeal to our force (Mozambican army), in case we return to Mocímboa da Praia, so that there are no threats," Valério Amade told VOA. "If they threaten the population again the way it was at the beginning (of the wave of displaced people), automatically in Mocímboa no one will live, people will be afraid; not fear of the insurgents, but fear of the force."

While the victory of the recovery of Mocímboa da Praia is celebrated there are personalities, including the former Mozambican president, Joaquim Chissano, who suggest dialogue with the jihadists as a way to stop the conflict.

The former president recalls that "certain types of terrorism," ended through negotiations, and calls for a study of the causes of armed violence in Cabo Delgado to solve the military and social crisis in the province.