{"id":35790,"date":"2020-09-02T08:11:53","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T08:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=35790"},"modified":"2020-09-02T08:11:53","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T08:11:53","slug":"mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/","title":{"rendered":"MOZAMBIQUE: Nuns missing after terrorist attack on Moc\u00edmboa da Praia"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The whereabouts of two religious sisters of the congregation of Saint Joseph of Chamb\u00e9ry is still unknown and nothing has been heard of them since the violent attack by rebel jihadist groups on the port of Moc\u00edmboa da Praia in early August this year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Father Kwiriwi Fonseca, of the diocese of Pemba in northern Mozambique, has been in contact with the international Catholic pastoral charity and pontifical foundation <strong><em>ACN <\/em><\/strong>and has informed them that so far the authorities have not given any explanation as to what has happened to these two religious and the more than 60 individuals who were present in their convent at the time of the attack.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Father Fonseca explained that the region around Moc\u00edmboa da Praia is to all intents cut off and that \u201cnobody can travel there\u201d. He recalled that the attack \u201cbegan on 5 August\u201d and was followed by \u201cseveral continuous days\u201d of fighting, \u201cup to the 11th\u201d. \u201cDuring this time the rebels attacked and occupied the port city of Moc\u00edmboa da Praia\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was during this attack that contact was lost with the two religious, Sister In\u00e9s Ramos and Sister Eliane da Costa. \u201cThey are Brazilian and one of them (Sister In\u00e9s) is over 70 years old\u201d, Father Kwiriwi explained later.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWhen the town was occupied\u201d, he explained to ACN, \u201cthere was no phone signal and so we were unable to make contact with the sisters, and we thought they might have lost their mobile phones\u2026 So, we are trying to look on the bright side\u2026 We are hoping that they are still alive but have no means of communication. At any rate, we are comforting ourselves with this thought, because we still don\u2019t exactly know the official version of events. We have not had any official notification.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the time of the attack there were \u201caround 60 people\u201d in the convent, mostly elderly people and a few children. Exactly what happened, no one knows. \u201cIf the sisters have returned to the convent, we have no way of knowing it, because there is no place there where they can buy a new mobile phone\u2026 Without any news of these (60) people we have no idea whether they have disappeared, died or been abducted. We don\u2019t know anything\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The diocese of Pemba was informed of the attack on the sisters\u2019 convent in a phone call from another member of the community. \u201cIt was he who told us that the sisters\u2019 convent had been attacked. Their silence since then makes us think that they must have lost their phones and are perhaps hiding out somewhere. Hence we have to assume that Sister In\u00e9s and Sister Eliane are \u2018whereabouts unknown\u2019 and therefore among the \u201cdisappeared\u201d. We have no information, so we can\u2019t make it up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The humanitarian crisis that is afflicting the province of Cabo Delgado in the far north of Mozambique is the result of the terrorist attacks, the scourge of this region. It is a crisis that has taken on a terrible dimension in terms of the number of people killed and made homeless, and in the complete lack of resources provided to support the population.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Father Cant\u00edfula de Castro, the assistant director of <em>Radio Encontro<\/em>, the radio station of the archdiocese of Nampula, in the neighbouring province, has sent a message to the Portuguese ACN\u2019s office in which he explained that \u201cin the archdiocese of Nampula around 5,000 refugees have arrived in the districts around Meconta, Nampula and Rapale. Most of them are young women and children in need of humanitarian aid. And they have no housing, food or clothing, including any protection against Covid-19\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to Father Cant\u00edfula, in a video message sent to ACN, \u201cthe province of Cabo Delgado has been embroiled in war for the past three years. The people are going through unbearable suffering on account of the terrorism.\u201d He continues, \u201cIt is a deplorable situation. It is estimated that there have been a little over 1000 deaths, with houses burned, villages abandoned, people reduced to living in the hills and others fleeing with absolutely nothing and seeking protection in places of relative safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ever since October 2017 the province of Cabo Delgado has been the scene of attacks by armed insurgents who some months ago openly declared allegiance to the so-called Islamic State, or Daesh, as it is also known. Indeed, the attacks have been growing in intensity in the last few months, and especially since the beginning of this year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Father Cant\u00edfula de Castro nonetheless insisted that, despite the complexity of the situation and the lack of resources, \u201cthe Church is not abandoning these people, but remaining by their side, giving them whatever material aid and spiritual support it can.\u201d He followed up his remarks with an appeal to the international community: \u201cPlease do not forget us. If you can, please help these people who have lost everything and been forced to flee from their homes! Many thanks!\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>Aid to the Church in Need is continuing to help the people of Mozambique through a raft of projects, ranging from rebuilding of churches to the support of priests and missionaries. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/donate\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-35565 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-300x44.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"44\" srcset=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-300x44.jpg 300w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-580x85.jpg 580w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-600x88.jpg 600w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button.jpg 627w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The whereabouts of two religious sisters of the congregation of Saint Joseph of Chamb\u00e9ry is still unknown and nothing has been heard of them since the violent attack by rebel jihadist groups on the port of Moc\u00edmboa da Praia in early August this year. Father Kwiriwi Fonseca, of the diocese of Pemba in northern Mozambique,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MOZAMBIQUE: Nuns missing after terrorist attack on Moc\u00edmboa da Praia - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MOZAMBIQUE: Nuns missing after terrorist attack on Moc\u00edmboa da Praia - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The whereabouts of two religious sisters of the congregation of Saint Joseph of Chamb\u00e9ry is still unknown and nothing has been heard of them since the violent attack by rebel jihadist groups on the port of Moc\u00edmboa da Praia in early August this year. Father Kwiriwi Fonseca, of the diocese of Pemba in northern Mozambique,...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-02T08:11:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Nuns-missing.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1040\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"780\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/\",\"name\":\"MOZAMBIQUE: Nuns missing after terrorist attack on Moc\u00edmboa da Praia - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Nuns-missing.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-02T08:11:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-02T08:11:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Nuns-missing.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Nuns-missing.jpg\",\"width\":1040,\"height\":780,\"caption\":\"Completely destroyed by the flames. The Church of Moc\u00edmboa da Praia was one of the targets of the armed groups that attacked this village in the province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, on the 27th and 28th of June 2020. This attack, as the ACN reported yet, caused general panic and led to population flight. For more details, check the ACN Portugal web page: https:\/\/bit.ly\/5720_Mo\u00e7ambique\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MOZAMBIQUE: Nuns missing after terrorist attack on Moc\u00edmboa da Praia\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\",\"name\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"description\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\",\"name\":\"ACN Malta Media\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ACN Malta Media\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MOZAMBIQUE: Nuns missing after terrorist attack on Moc\u00edmboa da Praia - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MOZAMBIQUE: Nuns missing after terrorist attack on Moc\u00edmboa da Praia - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","og_description":"The whereabouts of two religious sisters of the congregation of Saint Joseph of Chamb\u00e9ry is still unknown and nothing has been heard of them since the violent attack by rebel jihadist groups on the port of Moc\u00edmboa da Praia in early August this year. Father Kwiriwi Fonseca, of the diocese of Pemba in northern Mozambique,...","og_url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/","og_site_name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","article_published_time":"2020-09-02T08:11:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1040,"height":780,"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Nuns-missing.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ACN Malta Media","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ACN Malta Media","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/","name":"MOZAMBIQUE: Nuns missing after terrorist attack on Moc\u00edmboa da Praia - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Nuns-missing.jpg","datePublished":"2020-09-02T08:11:53+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-02T08:11:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Nuns-missing.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Nuns-missing.jpg","width":1040,"height":780,"caption":"Completely destroyed by the flames. The Church of Moc\u00edmboa da Praia was one of the targets of the armed groups that attacked this village in the province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, on the 27th and 28th of June 2020. This attack, as the ACN reported yet, caused general panic and led to population flight. For more details, check the ACN Portugal web page: https:\/\/bit.ly\/5720_Mo\u00e7ambique"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/09\/02\/mozambique-nuns-missing-after-terrorist-attack-on-mocimboa-da-praia\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MOZAMBIQUE: Nuns missing after terrorist attack on Moc\u00edmboa da Praia"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/","name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","description":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2","name":"ACN Malta Media","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ACN Malta Media"},"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35792,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35790\/revisions\/35792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}