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Survey Estimates 1,200 Deaths in 2021 Palma Attack

Survey Estimates 1,200 Deaths in 2021 Palma Attack

An enquiry estimates that some 1,200 people died or disappeared in the rebel attack on the village of Palma, northern Mozambique, in March 2021 and in the violence of the following days, US writer and journalist Alex Perry told Lusa this Monday, June 26.

“In total, 1193 people have been killed or are missing (presumed dead) and another 209 people have been kidnapped,” and among the dead there are 156 under the age of 18, including babies and children, says the survey, published last week.

A total of 432 people have disappeared, 366 have been shot dead, and 330 have been decapitated. No entity (governmental or otherwise) has to date presented an assessment of the number of victims of the attack that paralysed the TotalEnergies-led gas project and aggravated the humanitarian crisis in the province, under fire from insurgents since 2017.

The gap seemed so “staggering” to the author that he used $20,000 (€18,300) from a prize (George Polk Awards) obtained from another report he wrote on the attack to return to Cabo Delgado and fund the enquiry.

“We heard about hundreds of deaths, but there was no balance sheet,” he recalls. The figures were obtained door-to-door from 13 686 homes in Palma and 15 surrounding villages between November 2022 and March this year by a team hired by Alex Perry, careful about accuracy and mastery of local languages.

“We were meticulous: 97% of the deaths are identified with name, age, gender, address and by the way they died,” he said, estimating that “the number is higher because the analysis of the results was conservative, excluding dubious information, and because it only covers civilians (in the communities surveyed), excluding casualties among the military, insurgents and workers on the gas project.”

Asked what he intends to achieve with the publication, the author said that as a journalist he is simply “establishing a fact”.

Perry adds to the collection a condemnatory opinion of TotalEnergies, holding it responsible for what happened: “We’re not saying Total killed anyone, but it promised security that only existed for the fenced-off area of the project,” he charged.

“You can’t pretend to be a good neighbour and not pay attention when more than a thousand people die or have no interest in counting the dead,” Perry noted.

The author shared the data with the French oil company and Mozambican government authorities, but said he had not received any response. To Lusa, the French oil company said it was not in a position to comment on the data from the investigation and, on the other hand, it referred responsibility for security of the project and the surrounding area, at that time, to a joint force of the Mozambican ministries of Defence and Interior.

Still, until it withdrew all staff from Afungi, the consortium “played an active role in assisting the population” to whom it gave water, food, urgent medical support and ensured transfers by air and sea “for the most vulnerable, especially women and children.”

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