A Christian leader has hit out at violent squatters who have seized vast areas of territory in his diocese – and who are refusing to leave.
Archbishop Inácio Saure of Nampula held a press conference this week denouncing the illegal occupation of church land.
Archbishop Saure said: “They came and cut down many trees, and the wood was removed by truck.
“When we came to ask them to respect our private property they appeared with machetes and spears.
“They threatened us and told us they were going to demolish the seminary. They also took away our animals, that were raised by the seminarians.”
The appropriated land includes plots on which Mater Dei Monastery, two seminaries and St John the Baptist Church are located.
The occupiers have built a mosque on land adjacent to one of the seminaries.
Archbishop Saure described how trespassers also destroyed boundary walls, cut down cashew trees and damaged crops grown to support seminarians.
Despite a court order in May which demanded the return of the land to the church and the immediate eviction of the squatters, the plots are still occupied.
Archbishop Saure said: “Officials who were sent there were chased away.
“There is a stubborn refusal to vacate the land. This arrogance leads us to believe that there is an invisible hand linked to powerful people who are encouraging the current situation and the crimes being committed by the squatters.”
The prelate demanded that justice be served, “so that our rights are restored, because these are the rights of the poor, as the church and its works are at the service of the poor.
“It is not fair that the church’s goods should be stolen in this way.”
Father José Luzia, a missionary who has been in the country for almost six decades, told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that there is suspicion among the faithful that the land seizure may be retaliation for the bishops speaking out over the country’s social and political situation.
Father Benvindo Isaías de Jesus, director of the local Catholic Radio Encontro, said illegal occupations have been a problem for years, but have become more common since last year’s protests following elections in Mozambique.
But he also highlighted concerns the situation could lead to the worsening of inter-religious relations which have been destabilised by the Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado Province, just north of Nampula Province.
Father de Jesus said: “Most of those who spearhead the current occupations are Muslim. Once they have taken the land, the first thing they do is build a mosque.”