Sufo Salimo arrived in the city of Pemba on June 27 after fleeing extremist violence in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province. He had escaped the town of Palma on a boat with 24 others, making the treacherous journey south along the Indian Ocean with his wife and his 10-year-old nephew.
“Many people are being killed," said Mr Salimo, 26. "My brother was killed, and my sister and nephews were kidnapped by the armed groups."
Islamic extremism has plagued Cabo Delgado since October 2017, with Palma being targeted because of its proximity to the province’s natural gas and oil reserves. The city has experienced increasing attacks against civilians, with gunfire reported almost every week. Some of these attacks have been linked to ISIS.
The violence has uprooted about 800,000 people and killed more than 2,500 civilians, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled). Some of those killed have been beheaded, including children. Most of the internally displaced are women and minors.
More than 70,000 people fled Palma after ISIS-linked militants attacked the town in March, many of them to Pemba, the provincial capital about 300 kilometres down the coast. With hundreds more arriving each day, Pemba’s resources are at a breaking point, according to Margarida Loureiro, the head of the United Nations refugee agency office in Cabo Delgado.
“The trip from Palma to Pemba was very bad and took us five days," Mr Salimo said. "In Pemba we are not having a normal life, we don’t know where we are going now, nor where we will establish [ourselves] in the longer term. I would like to go back to Palma one day, but for now we can’t because of violence.”
Pemba had a population of more than 200,000 in 2017, but the city saw its population increase by almost three-quarters between February and April, according to Ocha, the UN humanitarian agency.
The new arrivals have come not just from Palma but also surrounding areas, driven away by the militants and also Cyclone Kenneth, which destroyed more than 34,000 homes and more than 31,000 hectares of crops in 2019, according to Ocha.
“They are already living in a very meagre situation, if they have to host their friends and family, we have situations where 40 people are living in a very small room."
Margarita Loureiro,
head of the UN refugee agency’s office, Cabo Delgado
Ms Loureiro said that between April 2020 and April 2021, the agency has seen a 325 per cent increase in displaced people overall arriving in Pemba. Between June 16 and 22 alone, there were 3,507 arrivals, most of them from Palma. Only 28 per cent of those people were displaced for the first time.
She described their testimonies as “horrific”.
“There are a lot of people talking about kidnapping and rapes and death, killings,” she said. “We've also noticed an increase in numbers of the elderly, and people with disabilities who are often voiceless, because they are frailer and have more difficulties to move or to ask for their rights. And we have been supporting this population that we often overlook for many reasons.”
As well as those coming to Pemba, large numbers of people head north to Tanzania to seek refuge there, but many are being turned back from the border, leaving them vulnerable to gender-based violence and sexual abuse, as well as kidnapping.
Since the beginning of this year, about 10,000 people have been forcibly returned to Mozambique after fleeing from Palma, Ms Loureiro said.
"Of those forcibly returned to Mozambique, many report being separated. Families are separated on the other side of the border ... particularly if families are bi-national. We are working with response partners to re-establish those family links," the UN official said.
On June 23, 16 southern African states said they would send forces into northern Mozambique to help quell the bloody insurgency, amid fears it may spill into neighbouring countries. The UN refugee agency is waiting to see how this will affect the people it supports.
The influx of people to Pemba is also affecting the communities that host them, who live in the poorest areas of the city.
“They are already living in a very meagre situation, if they have to host their friends and family, we have situations where 40 people are living in a very small room. With Covid, that doesn't help either,” Ms Loureiro said.
The specs: 2018 Honda City
Price, base: From Dh57,000
Engine: 1.5L, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 118hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 146Nm @ 4,600rpm
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Tips on buying property during a pandemic
Islay Robinson, group chief executive of mortgage broker Enness Global, offers his advice on buying property in today's market.
While many have been quick to call a market collapse, this simply isn’t what we’re seeing on the ground. Many pockets of the global property market, including London and the UAE, continue to be compelling locations to invest in real estate.
While an air of uncertainty remains, the outlook is far better than anyone could have predicted. However, it is still important to consider the wider threat posed by Covid-19 when buying bricks and mortar.
Anything with outside space, gardens and private entrances is a must and these property features will see your investment keep its value should the pandemic drag on. In contrast, flats and particularly high-rise developments are falling in popularity and investors should avoid them at all costs.
Attractive investment property can be hard to find amid strong demand and heightened buyer activity. When you do find one, be prepared to move hard and fast to secure it. If you have your finances in order, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Lenders continue to lend and rates remain at an all-time low, so utilise this. There is no point in tying up cash when you can keep this liquidity to maximise other opportunities.
Keep your head and, as always when investing, take the long-term view. External factors such as coronavirus or Brexit will present challenges in the short-term, but the long-term outlook remains strong.
Finally, keep an eye on your currency. Whenever currency fluctuations favour foreign buyers, you can bet that demand will increase, as they act to secure what is essentially a discounted property.
Squads
Pakistan: Sarfaraz Ahmed (c), Babar Azam (vc), Abid Ali, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Hasnain, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz
Sri Lanka: Lahiru Thirimanne (c), Danushka Gunathilaka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Avishka Fernando, Oshada Fernando, Shehan Jayasuriya, Dasun Shanaka, Minod Bhanuka, Angelo Perera, Wanindu Hasaranga, Lakshan Sandakan, Nuwan Pradeep, Isuru Udana, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara
Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer
Christopher Celenza,
Reaktion Books
MATCH INFO
BRIGHTON 0
MANCHESTER UNITED 3
McTominay 44'
Mata 73'
Pogba 80'
SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202-litre%204-cylinder%20turbo%20and%203.6-litre%20V6%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeven-speed%20automatic%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20235hp%20and%20310hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E258Nm%20and%20271Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh185%2C100%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More on Quran memorisation:
Greatest Royal Rumble results
John Cena pinned Triple H in a singles match
Cedric Alexander retained the WWE Cruiserweight title against Kalisto
Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt win the Raw Tag Team titles against Cesaro and Sheamus
Jeff Hardy retained the United States title against Jinder Mahal
Bludgeon Brothers retain the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Usos
Seth Rollins retains the Intercontinental title against The Miz, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe
AJ Styles remains WWE World Heavyweight champion after he and Shinsuke Nakamura are both counted out
The Undertaker beats Rusev in a casket match
Brock Lesnar retains the WWE Universal title against Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
Braun Strowman won the 50-man Royal Rumble by eliminating Big Cass last
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
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Price: From Dh98,800
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The%20National%20selections
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Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
