Mozambique’s First Women’s Congregation Braving the Wild to Care for Over a Million Displaced by Terrorists

Maputo, 14 July, 2025 / 9:51 PM

Members of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God (SMIC), reportedly the first female Congregation in Mozambique, are risking their lives to care for hundreds of thousands victims of religious extremism uprooted from their homes in the Northern regions of the Southern African country.

According to the Pontifical charity foundation, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, SMIC members have to endanger their lives every day by dodging the bullets of Islamist militants and by evading dangerous animals such as lions as they navigate the rough terrain to spread the Gospel.

While the insurgency that started in 2017 is concentrated in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province, where it has reportedly displaced over 1.3 million people, the humanitarian crisis it has caused is felt across neighbouring Provinces such as Nampula and Niassa, where those displaced are hosted in camps.

Some SMIC members serve in camps under the auspices of Mozambique’s Catholic Diocese of Lichinga in Niassa, giving hope to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Sr. Ermelinda Singua, SMIC Superior has told ACN that she is closely connected to this reality and often visits the many IDPs in Lichinga Diocese.

“Every time I have to travel on remote roads or through the bush, I ask for God's protection. Everyone is afraid; that's the truth. People risk their lives for the love of the Gospel,” Sr. Ermelinda says in the Monday, July 14 ACN report.

Sr. Ermelinda shares an incident in which she was chased by a lion while she was on a pastoral activity. She recalls an incident, where she and another Sister had to take a baby to the nearest medical clinic.

She tells ACN that the other Sister was riding the motorcycle, and she was sitting behind her, holding the baby, when a rabbit ran across the road. To their horror, a lion followed right behind the rabbit.

“The lion thought we'd taken the rabbit and gave chase,” she said, and continued, “I told my other Sister to put her foot on the gas, and she accelerated. I thought that was it, that the three of us would die that day, but after about 10 minutes, the lion gave up the chase. My Sister was handling the motorcycle expertly! But it was God who was looking out for us; He was the one who spared us from the lion that day.”

According to Sr. Ermelinda, the suffering endured by the IDPs in their camps in Lichinga Diocese is unbearable. “You can see the grief on their faces. They have been taken from their natural habitat; they've lost everything, including family members. There are more women than men, because the men were killed or taken by the terrorists.”

Sr. Ermelinda says that the situation is so desperate that some families are marrying off 10-year-old daughters in the hope that their husbands can offer some relief from the poverty they endure. “They try to escape the misery, but they end up in a different kind of misery,” she says.

SMIC members belong to the first female Congregation in Mozambique. Founded in 1948 to help evangelize the more remote areas of the Southern African nation, they faced difficult times after Mozambique's independence due to persecution by the Marxist government. Since then, they have flourished and now have 48 Sisters, seven Novices, and 12 Postulants.

Times have changed, Sr. Ermelinda tells ACN and explains that now the Sisters fear armed gangs and terrorists instead of Marxist ideologues.

She cites the example of the Sisters, who live in the camps and care for the displaced. “They have never abandoned the people. Since the beginning of the terrorist attacks, they have never left. It is heroic; they are with the people through good and bad, and that is a testimony that gives us all hope, especially in this year of the Jubilee of Hope,” Sr. Ermelinda says, referring to the ongoing Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year.

She clarifies that terrorists and conflict are not the only threats in Northern Mozambique, where the threat of hunger, including malnutrition, is also ever-present.

In addition to their evangelization work, SMIC members help care for dozens of young orphans, widows, and vulnerable girls in their missions in Niassa and elsewhere.

According to the July 14 ACN report, SMIC members are also active in providing education and healthcare to the population, training Catechists, and assisting with liturgical celebrations, especially in the absence of Priests.