Maputo — Over 600 displaced young people, victims of Islamist terrorism in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, will benefit from short and long-term scholarships over the next five years.

The beneficiaries are young people who have been resettled in Meconta district, in the adjacent province of Nampula, after they escaped from the extreme violence carried out by the jihadists.

The scholarships, according to Radio Moçambique, are being granted by the Roman Catholic Sant'Egidio Community to the young people in order to minimize their suffering and trauma caused by the terrorists.

The initiative also counts on funding from the German government.

According to the representative of the Sant'Egidio Community in Nampula, Américo Sardinha, fifty per cent of the scholarship holders will be young women and twenty-five per cent will be young natives of Meconta district, which hosts the displaced people.

"The idea of awarding these scholarships to young people is to encourage them not to join the ranks of the terrorists who are continuing to destabilize some districts of Cabo Delgado province. In addition to the scholarships, the Sant'Egídio Community is building four new classrooms and an administrative block that will be equipped with furniture at the Mulapane basic school', he said.