Armed attacks in northern Mozambique have decreased, but the emergency continues with around a million displaced people and underfunding of humanitarian operations, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has warned.
“The situation is still very worrying and our support continues to be very important”, given that the context “is still an emergency” said Lara Bommers, UNHCR’s communications officer in Pemba, in an interview with Lusa.
The UNHCR is one of the UN entities working on the ground with the Mozambican authorities to mitigate humanitarian and emergency problems.
“There are fewer incidents, fewer attacks and we don’t know if it was because of Ramadan,” a month in the Muslim calendar (ruled by the phases of the lusa) known for fasting, but which is mainly an invitation to introspection, she said.
Whether because Ramadan, which ends this week, or due to “a restructuring of non-state armed groups,” there are fewer occurrences, it does not mean that armed violence has disappeared, she said.
“Still we see sporadic attacks, every week,” she described.
“I was looking at figures from last week and we had, more or less, a movement of 2,000 people”, in other words, “the movement of displaced persons is not stopping”, Lara Bommers detailed.
The population is guided by the perception of security and “each attack leads to movements of people” that need to be supported, whether with access to civil documentation or means of subsistence, in conjunction with various entities.
“For example, the attacks near Nairoto have also influenced UNHCR’s work. At least 2,000 families had to leave Nairoto after attacks in February, which obviously has consequences,” he said.
In Mozambique, UNHCR has a budget mainly focused on the situation in the north of the country, but it is underfunded.
“This year, as we have more need, our budget is US$47.4 million (€43.25 million),” he said.
“We are in April, but not even a quarter is funded: we have only 23%. This is a difficulty, but it will not prevent us from adapting and continuing to work,” he stressed.
Lara Bommers’ statements come after the UNHCR issued another warning in March.
Two years after the attack on the village of the gas projects (which the oil companies were forced to suspend), the UNHCR noted that “the security situation in Palma has improved”, but “the population continues to live in extremely precarious conditions”.
The normalisation of the communities’ daily life is one of the conditions that has been pointed out by the French oil company TotalEnergies, which leads the interrupted gas project, to resume construction.
In any case, some subcontractors have mentioned that the restart has already been discussed for the month of June.
Cabo Delgado province has been facing an armed insurgency for five years with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
The insurgency has led to a military response since July 2021 with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts near gas projects, but new waves of attacks have emerged south of the region and in neighbouring Nampula province.
In addition to a million displaced people, the conflict has claimed around 4,000 lives, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.
Lusa
