Inconsolable tears as ‘huge’ crisis unfolding in Mozambique

Thousands of displaced people stream into Pemba and other parts of northern Mozambique after attack on town of Palma.

Maputo, Mozambique – The camera shows a crowd, before quickly zooming in on the faces of three women. They are all wailing. Thrusting microphones in their faces, journalists try to elicit some comment, but the inconsolable women are hardly audible, their incoherent utterances interspersed by long cries. They are among the thousands of people to have arrived in Pemba, the capital of the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, after fleeing a devastating attack last week on the town of Palma the left a trail of death and destruction in its wake.