When I first travelled to Mozambique’s northernmost Province of Cabo Delgado, in early August, Rwandan and Mozambican armed forces there were already in control of Palma, a strategic town on the northeast coast of the province.

It is located within about 30 kilometres from the Mozambican border with Tanzania.

At the time, Palma was a ghost town. There was no sign of civilian human life. Only heavily armed troops were seen on patrol in and around the town and its environs.

Commercial and residential buildings, health facilities and district administration offices, were all shelled and burned by the Islamic State-linked terrorists before they were repelled.

In October 2017, the armed extremists launched an insurgency in Cabo Delgado. More than 50 people were beheaded by terrorists in the Province in April 2020 and a similar number in November 2020.

On March 24, the terrorists seized the port town of Palma, murdered dozens of civilians and displaced more than 35,000 of its 75,000 residents.

Last month, I met some of the city’s residents in a vast camp of more than 10,000 internally displaced people (IDP) in Quitunda village.

When I visited Palma district again, last week on September 22, the ruins and residues of the scale of destruction caused by the terrorists still glared from all corners.

But, progressively, residents continue to return home from internally displaced persons camps. Vivid were signs of relief, hope and cheerfulness, seeing that, among others, some shops were open. Vendors of assorted basic commodities including charcoal, fruits, onions and cooking oil were on the streets.

Despite their, undoubtedly, countless challenges, the town’s folks – young and old – were back, and determined to live normal lives.

"I am happy and thank God. Business is not booming as it used to but I am happy to be home again. I wish all our people, wherever they are now, can also be facilitated to come home,” a young man who was selling groceries near the city’s main highway told this reporter last week.

Under a tree shade a few metres away, a group of men looked on as two others played Bao, a traditional African board game found nearly everywhere on the continent.

Instead of two rows, the brand of the two-player turn-based strategy board game in Palma and other parts of Cabo Delgado has four rows, unlike the type of Igisoro played in Rwanda. Later, I established, Bao is a common pastime for men in most parts of the region.

Life is not yet what it was before the insurgency but, unlike last month when there was almost no sign of life in Palma, some former residents are back and the coastal city is gradually regaining its colour and bustle.

Just outside the city, on the road from Afungi, two teenagers carrying worn-out soccer boots waved at a convoy of Rwandan troops. The teens were on their way to play football in a sandy playground a few kilometres away.

"I love [Lionel] Messi,” said Yusuf, the seemingly self-assured, taller and stronger one who was doing his best to show off his dirty and tatty Barcelona jersey.

"We left Quitunda over two weeks ago. It is good to be home again but not everyone has returned in our village. People continue coming every other day.”

Rwandan and Mozambican forces on August 28 started helping hundreds of people displaced by the terrorists to return to their homes, with the first batch, 684 people, heading to their homes in Palma district, from the IDP camp in Quitunda.

Currently, more than 25,000 people have returned to their homes in different parts of the Province which is nearly three times bigger than Rwanda. Of all the people returning to their communities, only about 4,300 were transported and escorted by the joint forces but majority are returning on their own.

The joint forces escorted the returnees to their homes and also continue to ensure their security.

Farther southward, in Quelimane, grown-ups congregated by the roadside to play Bao while boys enjoyed football.

In the entire Province, more than 820,000 were displaced by the violent terrorist insurgency.

On July 9, the government of Rwanda, at the request of Maputo, deployed 1,000 troops to Cabo Delgado to help fight the terrorists, stabilise the region and restore state authority. Kigali sent troops to work closely with Mozambique Armed Defence Forces (FADM) and forces from SADC, in the fight against terrorists.

The deployment – commended by the African Union as a strong and concrete act of African solidarity – is based on the good bilateral relations between Rwanda and Mozambique, following the signing of several agreements between the two countries in 2018.

According to Rwandan officials, it is also "grounded in Rwanda’s commitment to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine” and the 2015 Kigali Principles on the Protection of Civilians.

More than 90 percent of Cabo Delgado is now free save for very few "pockets” where operations to wipe out the remnants of terrorists are focused.

The province has 16 districts but those mainly affected by the insurgents’ terror activities were Palma, Mocimboa da Praia, Mueda, Mocamia and Muidumbe.

The joint forces are now busy combing through most of the recaptured territory to ensure remnants of the terrorists do not resurface to undermine the peace.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on September 25 thanked the people of Rwanda and President Paul Kagame for having quickly understood his country’s need for help and acted accordingly to help thwart a threat posed by terrorists. Kagame was last weekend invited by Nyusi to celebrate Mozambique’s Armed Forces Day, in Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado.