Four religious sisters of the Blessed Sacrament lived moments of terror in Mozambique, after an armed group broke into its mission in the Diocese of Pamba, to the north of the African country, threatening them with death and stripping them of their belongings.
OK The Pontifical Foundation helps the Church in need (ACN), the assault occurred on June 8, when 18 men armed with machetes, iron bars and firearms assaulted the mission where the sisters take care of about 30 girls. Eight of the attackers entered the house, while the rest watched the accesses and submitted to the security guards.
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“They were terrible moments”
“The panic invaded us when we saw them enter our rooms, demanding money and taking everything they found. They took computers, cell phones and the little money we had,” said sister ofélia Robledo Alvarado in a message sent to ACN.
The attackers took the religious to the chapel of their mission and forced them to kneel. Sister ofélia recalls that “we thought they were going to set fire to the chapel with us, but instead, they kneel sister hope in the center of the temple and raised a machete to decapitate her in front of us.”
“I begged them not to kill her, that they had already taken us all, and I begged clemency. They were terrible moments, but thank God, they left her free,” he adds.
When the thieves left, the religious looked for girls, who “thank God, we find them quiet and unharmed.”
“Permanent insecurity”
The religious points out that “it is the first time in 17 years that we suffered an attack on our mission; until now, no one had ever entered our house with bad intentions,” and regrets that in the region a “wave of terrorism” began in the region “in 2017 that” has changed everything: now we live in a situation of permanent insecurity throughout the province of Cabo Delgado. “
“The saddest thing is that even the police and the army are involved in organized criminal gangs. Therefore, we need to take measures to protect us and girls,” he says.
The assault on the religious occurred a few days after a robbery in the village of Mieze, also in Mozambique, to the parents of La Salette. According to ACN, the priests “were assaulted by men armed with machetes” during the night, but without anyone being injured.
The Pontifical Foundation, which helps the Diocese of Pmba in assistance to more than one million displaced by violence in the region, said that the mercedary sisters of the Blessed Sacrament seek resources to install security cameras and bars in the windows of the mission complex, which includes the residence, the home of girls, the chapel and other facilities.
David Ramos
Graduate in Communication Sciences by the Private University of the North in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working in ACI Press, I am based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered the trips of Pope Francis to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.