What years of war, cyclones and displacement have wrought upon the people of northern Mozambique

The remains of a cholera treatment centre near Quelimane, Mozambique, after Cyclone Freddy struck in March 2023. (Martim Gray Pereira)

“Companheiros! Companheiras!” shouts a man called Enric, standing on a covered septic tank in the parking lot of the Pensão Vincente in Chiúre.

It is the morning muster and a group of drivers, doctors, nurses and counsellors, all wearing white Médicos Sem Fronteiras (MSF) flak jackets, assemble in and among five world-weary Land Cruisers fitted with tall radio antennae.

Each faces the hotel gate, having been artfully reversed in the night before. (Chiúre is one of the safer towns in northern Mozambique but there have been attacks in the district before and you never know when you might need to leave in a hurry.)

In a hoarse smoker’s voice well accustomed to projection, Enric goes through the day’s activities — who is going where, carrying what — and then cries, “Ok, vamos [let’s go]!”