For the second time in a month, on Wednesday, September 28, a Rwanda security forces' medical team set out, in the morning, to attend to patients in Olumbi, a remote village 50 kilometers from their base camp in Afungi, Palma district.
The area is part of Cabo Delgado Province in northern Mozambique, where Rwandan troops have been deployed for over the past one year.
The base camp has a well equipped level 2 referral hospital. But the medical teams know that not everyone in the region can make it to Afungi for treatment. So, they need to make regular trips deep into the forest region, to treat people, for free.
When The New Times arrived at the camp, Hawa Momadi, a soft-spoken frail lady, was talking to one of the doctors attending to her son, a young boy called Abdallah. He had been vomiting for two straight days and had a fever, the mother explained.
After the doctor finished his physical examination, he gave the mother instructions, in fluent Kiswahili, the language the Rwandans mainly use to communicate with locals, on how to use Coartem, a medication used to treat non-severe malaria, and Paracetamol, a medication used to treat fever and mild to moderate pain.
Malaria is endemic in the region and, close to 40 per cent of the patients that Rwandan doctors attend to show symptoms of the killer disease.
"I don't know his age. I only know about giving birth to him," Hawa told The New Times. "We recently returned home from the forest where we had gone hiding. We survived many harsh situations but I got so worried when my boy got fever."
"I was relieved to know that the Rwandans were coming to treat people today. But I was still worried we might not get medicine. There are so many ill people waiting."
Almost everywhere around Olumbi village, there were signs of hope mixed with desperation, perseverance, and uncertainty. Saidi Momadi, a 60-year-old who survived the insurgency, said they really don't know what the future holds.
Uncertain but hopeful
He said: "We are suffering and unsure of the future. All we do is just stay here and try start afresh. Our lives were shattered but we thank God for these doctors. They are saving lives, and giving us hope."
Ever since Rwandan security forces deployed in Cabo Delgado in July 2021, they were not only focused on fighting the Islamic State-linked terrorists, but worked hard to stabilize the region and restore state authority.
They engaged in humanitarian activities such as providing emergency medical care to civilians, at the field hospital in Afungi, and other areas. The base camp in Afungi has a Level 2 hospital with all the elements of Level 1 and additional facilities such as an intensive care unit and specialist doctors for gynaecology and paediatric services.
This is our calling, our duty
Lately, Rwandan security forces have upped their stabilisation effort in Palma and Mocimboa da Praia, their areas of responsibility. After helping the Mozambican security forces to route out terrorists, part of the larger ongoing stabilisation effort is to offer much needed medical services to the population. On a regular basis, medical teams drive to very remote areas. The doctors and nurses are overwhelmed, but they keep going.
In Olumbi village, Maj. Dr. Jean Paul Shumbusho, a specialist general surgeon who heads the Rwanda security forces medical services in Cabo Delgado, was also busy attending to patients. A few meters away from his tent, more than a hundred other people, young and old, sat in the sand, waiting for their turn.
"When we came here, we knew that we would be overwhelmed. But we are professional health service providers and, this is our calling. This is our duty. We were expecting this situation. We knew Cabo Delgado is a very big Province where so many people were displaced by war and are lacking healthcare services," Shumbusho said.
"We came with all equipment and drugs. Each day, we treat 300 to 500 patients. We move from our field hospital and go deep in rural villages where people cannot come to us."
Shumbusho and his team also contend with many other issues such as malnutrition which, he explained, are related to their operational environment. Thousands of people recently left densely populated internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps to return to their ravaged remote villages and homes.
There is a general lack of, among others, basic hygiene in villages even though people are happy to be back home and feel safer. Besides offering treatment, the Rwandan doctors are doing their best to educate the population about basic hygiene so as to prevent diseases.
"We educate them but we also give appointments for further treatment, for example, if someone requires surgery we make arrangements for them to be operated on," Shumbusho said.
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According to Brig Gen Ronald Rwivanga, the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) Spokesperson, "in our operational philosophy," ensuring that people get requisite health care is part of the RDF human security component.
"This is done to win hearts and minds because this is one of the counterinsurgency strategies. People fled these regions because of terrorist attacks. When they came back, they had to receive necessary services and one of them is medical care which we are providing," Rwivanga said.
In Palma and Mocimboa da Praia districts, Rwandan security forces and their Mozambican counterparts have enabled more than 130,000 people to return to their villages and carry on with their normal lives.
All these people need medical care. It is a gigantic task, considering that people are dispersed in different areas. But the Rwandans helping out are not intimidated.
"There is no limit to how much we can do to support them. Even when we are overwhelmed, we'll still come back and help," Rwivanga said.
"A few weeks ago, 260 people were treated in this village but there were so many and we are back to treat more. We are trained for such scenarios. We can treat up to 700 people in a day. It is the right thing to do."
