More than 1.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in northern Mozambique due to the insecurity and violence caused by terrorist attacks, according to United Nations data released today.
A report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), with data up to May, identifies Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa as the provinces most affected by the impacts of the ‘armed conflict and insecurity in the region’, which has caused people to flee after repeated attacks.
The report identifies 1.7 million people in Mozambique in need of humanitarian support of all kinds, including 1.24 million victims of the armed conflict in the north, mainly Cabo Delgado, and 429,623 throughout the country, in this case to mitigate the risks and impacts of natural disasters.
OCHA previously stated that it had supported more than two million people in 2023 who needed humanitarian assistance in northern Mozambique due to the armed conflict.
By the end of May, the document adds, 937,965 people had received humanitarian support, 94 per cent of them displaced by terrorist attacks.
The OCHA report points out that 76 non-governmental organisations, including seven United Nations agencies, are working on the ground in this humanitarian support.
It adds that at the end of May 1.2 million people needed shelter in Mozambique, 562,000 needed nutritional support and 950,000 needed access to health care.
The humanitarian response plan for this year in Mozambique had received 73.7 million dollars (67.6 million euros) by 31 May, out of the 413 million dollars (379.2 million euros) needed, according to OCHA.
Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed rebellion since October 2017, with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State.
The last major attack took place on May 10 and 11 in the district headquarters of Macomia, with around a hundred insurgents sacking the town, causing several deaths and heavy fighting with the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces.
The population of other districts in the province has reported the movement of these groups of insurgents, who cause panic as they pass through the forests, but there have been no reports of clashes, which is happening at a time when the peasants are trying to carry out harvest work in the fields.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said on 16 June that the actions of the various defence forces had made it possible to wipe out ‘practically all’ of the bases of the terrorist groups operating in Cabo Delgado, which are now limited to ‘walking in the bush’.
“The result of this combination of forces is surprising. They managed to disable the terrorists from all the towns and villages that had been occupied, destroyed practically all the enemy’s fixed bases, making them nomadic, and put many violent extremists out of action, including some of their main leaders,’ said Nyusi, in Mueda, Cabo Delgado province.
The head of state acknowledged the efforts of the Armed Defence Forces of Mozambique, together with the Rwandan military, the mission of the southern African countries – which withdrew completely on July 4 – and the Local Force, made up of former fighters in the national liberation struggle, in combating these groups over the last six years.
‘They’re out there in the bush, but they no longer stay in one place because they’re afraid of being found,’ added the President, about the actions of these insurgent groups in some districts of Cabo Delgado, renewing his appeal to the population ‘to continue to increase vigilance’.
Lusa
