The delegate of the National Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (INGD) in Cabo Delgado, Marques Naba, said on Monday 1 July that more than 250,000 people displaced by terrorism will be able to return to their areas of origin by next December.
The organisation explains that this situation is the result of improved security conditions in some regions of the province.
The INGD also predicts an increase in the population in Mocímboa da Praia and Palma, districts with 100 per cent of returnees. The INGD delegate said that the relative security in the regions previously affected by terrorism continues to be a major challenge for the government, which is currently endeavouring to assist families until their lives are effectively established.
Cabo Delgado province has been in the grip of an armed conflict since 2017 that has terrorised the population. Rebel groups have pillaged and massacred villages and towns all over the province, and a variety of attacks have been claimed by the ‘arm’ of the self-proclaimed Islamic State in that region.
The conflict has already caused more than 4,000 deaths (data from The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project) and at least a million displaced people, according to an assessment made by the Mozambican authorities.
Since July 2022, a military offensive by Maputo, with support from Rwanda and later from SADC, has brought a climate of greater security to the region that hadn’t been felt for years, and has recovered locations that were controlled by the rebels, such as the town of Mocímboa da Praia, which had been occupied since 2020.
