Sister Blanca is fifty-six years old. She has been working in Mozambique since 2004. Her missionary service changed drastically three years ago when the jihadists began their brutal purges in the Cabo Delgado province. Initially, they were “enemies without a face,” as the people of Mozambique called them, now taking an organised form, thus proclaiming the founding of the Islamic State of Central Africa (ISCA).

A group of radical Muslims raided the village of Matuide on the 6th of November and beheaded over fifty residents, including many children. The government cannot stop the bloodshed. Thousands of refugees have arrived from Cabo Delgado to Pemba, where Sister Blanca now resides.

“The exodus is indescribable. Masses of people reach us on foot. Their journey sometimes takes days without food or water. Many die on the way. We don’t have accommodation for everyone, we try to organise makeshift tents under the trees. After the refugees are registered by local authorities, they are sent to camps. The conflict displaced nearly half a million people, thousands were murdered, hundreds were missing or kidnapped. The situation is really serious,” explains the Colombian missionary in an interview with the Italian monthly “Tempi”.

As a result of the attacks of jihadists, missionaries also had to leave their apostolic work. The Teresian Carmelite Missionaries were forced to leave their mission in Macomia, where they ran a school for 170 students and a nursery for one hundred children. Together with their families, they took the children with them to another,  safe region of Mozambique that is still safe.

Source: pch24.pl