Catholic Sisters Facilitating Trauma Healing for Thousands Displaced by Jihadists in Northern Mozambique

Maputo, 08 November, 2025 / 10:16 PM

Catholic Sisters in Mozambique’s Pemba Diocese are implementing programs that support thousands of people displaced by terrorist violence in Cabo Delgado Province located in the north of the country, helping them heal from the trauma and rebuild their lives.

With the financial support of the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, Sr. Aparecida Queiroz, a member of the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus (FI) provides and coordinates the psychosocial and spiritual support of the different Congregations to the displaced in the Mozambican Diocese.

The support, ACN has reported, is for those who have lost loved ones, “or even just their material goods”, due to terrorist attacks in Mozambique.

Sr. Aparecida who has been in Mozambique since 2017, around the time that Islamist attacks started in the Southern African country, tells ACN that those displaced by the jihadism “are completely lost” because of trauma, and that her work, and those of other Sisters in the program “helps them start their life again.” 

The north of Mozambique has been plagued by an Islamist insurrection which has claimed over 6,000 lives since 2017 and has led to over one million people fleeing their homes in search of safety. 

Sr. Aparecida has told ACN that although some people merely fled for fear of being affected, others suffered attacks directly. 

Regardless of their personal stories, everybody has lost something, the Catholic Sister says in the Thursday, November 6 ACN’s report. 

“We are speaking about people who lost everything, not just material goods, but their very identities. Many of these people lost family members, in the most brutal ways,” she says, adding that psychological support “helps them start their lives again.”

Often, the Catholic Sister finds that material loss is the least of the concerns of the displaced people. 

She says that the deep psychological trauma can be crippling, leading people to lose any positive outlook on life.

“Through our work we help people to rebuild their lives. Rebuild their identity, work through their pain and start being people again, to start working and dreaming again,” she says, and continues, “Our work, individual or in groups, helps people to recover.”

“We do group sessions where people recover their self-confidence, they speak and do manual work, because when people are displaced, they lose their references, and this work helps them to get back to celebrating their lives, to express themselves the way they used to in their villages. They express a joy which they had not done since the attack,” Sr. Aparecida says.

The member of the Daughters of Jesus recalls that during group sessions, she sees trust begin to reappear in the eyes of their patients. “The group serves as support, and as a way to rebuild trust, because the attacks feed distrust, and here they learn to trust in their communities again, and they celebrate this together,” she says.

In the November 6 report, ACN says that it has been supporting the Church in Mozambique, especially in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. 

Besides support for the trauma healing work, the Catholic charity foundation helps the Church provide emergency aid and pastoral support for the internally displaced, as well as vehicles to aid pastoral workers in their mission.