The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today it was “gravely concerned” by the violence and insecurity in northern Mozambique, which have prevented UN agencies and humanitarian partners from assisting people in need.
At a ‘briefing’ at UN headquarters in New York, the Secretary-General’s deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq, took stock of the situation in Mozambique, stressing that attacks in Cabo Delgado, along with extreme weather events, have led to an increase in internally displaced persons.
“UNHCR has warned that conflict and displacement, compounded by extreme weather events, have led to increased protection needs – physical, material and legal – for hundreds of thousands of affected refugees, internally displaced persons and people from host communities,” Haq said.
The UN agency further noted that since the beginning of this year Mozambique has been hit by five tropical storms and cyclones along its northern coastal areas.
“These storms have impacted thousands of families, including refugees and people internally displaced by the ongoing violence in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. UNHCR said this illustrates once again how the effects of climate change interact with many of the root causes of displacement,” the spokesperson stressed.
UNHCR detailed that violence continues to disrupt the lives of some 783,000 people in Cabo Delgado province. In these first months of 2022 alone, an estimated 6,000 people have been registered as newly displaced following the resurgence of conflict in Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces.
“This violence has prevented UN agencies and other humanitarian partners from accessing people in need. In areas that can be reached, UNHCR, other UN agencies and humanitarian partners continue to increase protection and assistance activity and emphasize how vital it is that we can continue to do so,” Farhan Haq concluded.
Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas, but has been terrorized since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
There are about 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.
Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops with Rwandan support later joined by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) allowed to recover areas where there was a rebel presence, but their flight has provoked new attacks in other districts used as passage or temporary refuge.
Lusa
