On the Third Sunday of Advent 2024, in the early morning, tropical cyclone Chido cut a swathe of devastation through the province of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique, a region sadly already plagued for several years now by Islamic jihadist terrorism and in which hundreds of thousands of civilians are already homeless refugees.
With wind speeds initially bordering on 200 km an hour (125 miles an hour) the cyclone tore through homes, schools, hospital clinics and kindergartens, flattening trees and electricity pylons and knocking out the electricity and water supply systems in the regional capital Pemba and in other towns and cities. Church buildings and premises were also severely affected and chapels, convents and parish houses and other church establishments destroyed or badly damaged.
The Parish of St. Isabel (St. Elisabeth) in Chiuré lies in one of the most densely populated districts of Cabo Delgado province and serves a wide area, with 96 outlying communities. In recent years thousands of people have sought refuge here after fleeing the jihadist terrorism that has afflicted the region. And indeed, in 2024 even some of the villages of the parish were themselves victims of the murderous raids by the jihadist rebels.
The parish itself is in the care of two diocesan priests and two Jesuits. And there is also a community of Salesian religious sisters and a total of 187 lay catechists. Additionally, the parish has a Fazenda da Esperança (or„ Farm of Hope“), an initiative born initially in Brazil, offering a centre for the recovery of addicts.
The cyclone tore the roof of the parish church and broke the windows.
In the same region, in the parish of Christ the King in Metoro, the parish church was also damaged. This parish is also home to the catechists‘ training centre for the diocese of Pemba, so that the church is also used for the meetings of the trainee catechists. Some of the villages here have already been attacked and pillaged by the terrorists, so that the parish was already facing major challenges, even before the cyclone.
The parish church of Mieze is dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Hundreds of people attend Sunday Mass here, including many many children and young people. And here too the cyclone has torn the roof of the church right off. So the faithful now quite literally have no roof over their heads when they attend Holy Mass, and not even any trees to shelter beneath, since these too were ripped up by the storm. And this is also a parish that has already taken in hundreds of refugees.
ACN is helping, with a total of 30,300 Euros for the repair of these three churches, damaged by the cyclone. And we have already received requests for help for other similar repair projects from the diocese of Pemba.
