Mozambicans head home for safety

By Eleuterio Fenita
BBC News, Mozambique

Until recently, Mozambicans in South Africa described the country as a "brotherly and friendly" place.

But more than 32,000 Mozambicans have now been pushed back across the border by a wave of anti-foreigner violence.

Fifty-six people have been killed and at least 70,000 displaced by the attacks, which began earlier this month near Johannesburg.

They have been asking us not to let anger get to us and that we should not retaliate Mozambican returnee Levis

"It's absolute chaos. It's a massacre, as close to a war as you can get," says Levis, clearly shaken.

"I've lost a lot but at least still got my soul," he sighs, sharing a smile with a few fellow returnees.

They have been staying in one of two transit camps set up by the authorities in Beluluane, about 20km (30 miles) from the capital, Maputo.

In the background, in a fenced perimeter adjacent to a local police station, stand 74 neatly organised tents, spacious enough to accommodate six to eight people.

Close by, water tanks lie in wait, while health workers chat to a South African woman who says her Mozambican companion "was almost burnt alive".

"They said I should leave and follow him. We've got two young children and don't know what will become of us now," she laments.

Aid effort

The immediate priority is to give people medical treatment, food and counselling says Ilda Cuna, the provincial secretary of the Mozambican Red Cross, which is helping to run the camps.

Tents in the transit camp sleep six to eight people

"The idea is not to have people in the camps for too long, unless we're unable to get them back to their home provinces immediately upon their arrival and after they have received basic assistance."

Efforts to assist the returnees are being overseen by the reactivated Emergency Operations Center, commended for its work during recent floods in central Mozambique.

Levis hails the work the Mozambican authorities are doing to help people like him.

"I'm grateful to the government," he says.

"They have been asking us not to let anger get to us and that we should not retaliate. I hope all of us heed the call."

This forgiving sentiment is not shared by everyone though.

On the outskirts of Maputo, one woman says she will never forgive those who chased her, chanting the name of a southern Mozambican ethnic group common in South Africa: "Kill the Shangaans, beat the Shangaans!"

Conscious of growing anger among the returnees and the general public, President Armando Guebuza has been warning that "violence only generates more violence".

He has reminded Mozambicans of the heavy price they had to pay during another period of upheaval - the civil war that killed up to a million people before a settlement in 1992.

'Land of the rand'

Meanwhile, about 100km (62 miles) away at the Ressano Garcia border, Mozambicans continue arriving, albeit in smaller numbers compared with last week.

I drove all night... I will not go back for at least six months A man at the Ressano Garcia border

One man arrives exhausted, his van overloaded and far too small the mattress, the fridge, the hi-fi equipment and everything else.

He says he had no choice but to flee.

"I drove all night and will have to continue driving for at least another 800km (500 miles)."

"I will not go back for at least six months," he vows.

In fact, there is not much road traffic from Mozambique to South Africa these days.

This explains why you do not see the long queues of people waiting to go through immigration and customs on their way to earn money in "the land of the rand [South Africa's currency]".

"Usually you'd have at least 10 to 15 minibuses leaving here for the border and beyond," says the man in charge of the local terminal for "chapas" - as the minibuses, the main means of public transport, are known.

"Now it's come down to almost zero."

For the time being the authorities appear to be coping with the demands suddenly imposed by the flood of Mozambicans returning home.

The question though is whether the communities the returnees are going back to - some after a long absence - will have the means to meet the additional social-economic burden brought about by the wave of xenophobic violence.