'To this day I don't know about my family': Tales of trauma from Mozambique's insurgency

Refugee Sarima Baissa with her son. She is physically handicapped and walks on her knees. Her son managed to rescue her from attacking insurgents by lifting her onto a bike and pushing her into the woods. She doesn't know what happened to the rest of her family. (supplied)

Sarima Baissa, 49, is physically handicapped and walks on her knees

Chimoio relocation site in Montepuez, Cabo Delgado

It was one night, the date I don't remember. My son and I were inside the house having dinner. Suddenly we heard gunshots and screams; then my son told me they are Al-Shabaab.

When we went outside we saw houses on fire, so my son took the bike and put me on and we ran towards the woods.

Some people had their arms, heads and legs cut off.

To this day I don't know about my family. I don't know if they're alive or dead.

When I arrived at Chimoio I had nothing, no blankets, no food, no water. My son and I stayed under a cashew tree here until the centre chief and the village chief helped us to get a tent and then they gave us land and we built our house.

I don't have food, it's the neighbours who give me some food and I thank them. We have water thanks to JAM (Joint Aid Management), who also helps me and other brothers here in the centre.

Life is very difficult here in a strange land.

Zura Alifa Assumane, 62

Nikuapa relocation site, Montepuez, Cabo Delgado

The terrorists came to our house, they had guns, we tried to hide. They grabbed my sister-in-law by the legs and dragged her outside; her little boy was under the bed, but they found him. They took us all outside and then they chopped her head off. They chopped her hands and put them on her chest, they cut out her tongue. They put her head at the front door. They took her son and ... they took my daughter.

I don’t know if I will ever see my daughter again.

I used to have a farm — I grew cassava and maize, now I don’t have any land of my own. The local community here does not want to give us any land. If I could plant and work in the land, maybe it would distract me from thinking about my daughter.

The NGOs are the only ones helping us, but sometimes the people here get angry because we have been given water and food.

I am still terrified, I can’t stop thinking about it.

• Interviews by Joint Aid Management (JAM), an African humanitarian aid and development charity that assists refugees throughout Africa with water, food and shelter. Some people have been in camps for a few years, and slowly the camps are turning into settlements where people build more permanent structures for homes and grow some vegetables.