Update on the Unrest

After two weeks of uncertainty, the Volunteers who were moved out of their sites in Tete and Sofala because of unrest were finally brought home yesterday.  There were no attacks after June 25, Mozambican Independence Day. Our Mozambican Safety & Security Coordinator and his boss, the regional safety officer, traveled to the affected provinces and conducted numerous interviews over the past week and were satisfied that everything was calm enough that PCVs would be safe to return to their communities. Everyone was unbelievably relieved, especially after both men had spoken of the possibility of pulling all volunteers out of Sofala. No one wanted to abandon their students and neighbors, to leave projects just-begun or halfway finished. The consolidated volunteers were already feeling stressed because the two weeks they were missing coincided with preparation for final exams, or in some cases provincial exams. Many were receiving calls and texts from friends, neighbors and students wondering why they had disappeared for so long, and if this was a bad sign that they should in fact be scared for more violence. No one was quite sure of the best way to explain why Peace Corps had removed them without a) alarming their communities and b) making it seem like volunteers would just abandon their communities at the first sign of trouble.

So the news Thursday morning that everyone would be headed home by Saturday was just about the best 4^th of July gift anyone could ask for. We had already planned a potluck barbecue at my house, but we were much more in the mood to celebrate knowing that the exile was almost over. Everyone cooked something and we ended up with quite a spread. A couple of my Mozambican friends came to celebrate with us, including my friend Silvino who lived for more than thirty years in the US and was very happy to celebrate the 4^th with a houseful of Americans and a tableful of American food. 

Although we were all relieved to find out that Sofala had been deemed safe, it was difficult to feel like this was the final word. The attacks had stopped, and Alfonso Dhlakama, the opposition leader who had announced the roadblock and most believe had ordered the attacks, held a press conference Wednesday night calling for an end to attacks on the highway. But multiple rounds of talks between RENAMO and FRELIMO have gone nowhere. Neither side seems willing to give on some crucial points, both regarding the political issues that are nominally the basis for this conflict, or issues like military presence near RENAMO’s base of operations. The military is continuing to escort cars traveling on the southern part of the EN1, a signal that things still aren’t quite right.

Ever since the first attack by government troops on the armory near Beira, fofoca (gossip) has been flying. It is extremely difficult to separate fact from rumor when the media here barely exist and most news outlets are under some level of control by the government. Particularly in the more rural areas where Peace Corps places volunteers, there were endless reports of armed groups being spotted marching in one direction or another, attacks on weapons caches, or bandits blocking roads. When these events didn’t show in the papers, it was hard to know if it was because they hadn’t happened, or because someone had an interest in it not making headlines. Large international companies have started investing in Mozambique and no one involved wants instability scaring off investors. Once our security staff had checked out the scene on the ground and decided it was relatively stable, we felt much more confident dismissing rumors, but I don’t know if anyone felt like we actually knew the full extent of activity on the part of either side: RENAMO or FRELIMO. 

Everyone should have arrived back at site by today, so I shot off some text messages, checking on how their arrivals had been. After a few confirmations that all was well at site, one friend casually ended a message with, “Did you hear about the new shootings btw?” At first I thought she might be joking: it couldn’t happen that after more than a week without incident, there was a shooting the day they all went home. But, no, she was serious. Early yesterday morning, there was an attack on a RENAMO base, believed to have been perpetrated by the military. As in previous cases, reporting on the clash was inconclusive. I dug through Twitter for #RENAMO and found links to a couple of articles confirming that an attack had happened, one stating that eighteen people had been injured, but it still isn’t clear exactly what happened.

I talked to a couple friends to find out what they had heard and, interestingly, the overwhelming reaction we seem to be having to this is fatigue, more than fear. There was a smaller incident back in April which led to a few people being pulled from site, and now after two weeks of uncertainty about the future, worry about escalating violence, discomfort about our relationships with our communities in a time of unrest, and frustration with the media and lack of information, we were just tired of it and wanted to get back to work. And that’s just after two weeks! As I mentioned in my last post, it is hard to imagine what life is like for people who have lived for years in societies where they can never be sure of the next week, month or year. 

So I sat down to write this post (before I heard about the latest attack) full of optimism. No one here in Chimoio seems too worried about the unrest since the first spate of attacks. It felt like everything was settling down. US employees in the national park in Sofala had returned to work at the same time we learned the PCVs would be going back. Personally, everything has been great lately (new post to come later this week with some highlights). But after hearing about this latest event, I don't know. I haven't heard about any reprisals and still haven't heard anything definitive on the initial incident. It may turn out to be nothing and I sure hope so, but I almost think that no information would be better than the uncertainty of all the mixed messages coming from the media.