Two million Mozambicans are in “critical” need of support and 900,000 remain displaced due to violence caused by terrorist groups and the effects of cyclones, according to the UNHCR, which classifies Mozambique as “one of the most affected countries in the world”.
“Mozambique hosts approximately 30,000 refugees and asylum seekers, while some 900,000 people remain internally displaced due to violence perpetrated by non-state armed groups and the devastating impact of the climate crisis – Mozambique being one of the most affected countries in the world,” reads the operational report for the end of July, launched on Friday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The document – in which the UNHCR also estimates funding needs for assistance operations in the country in 2023 at 47.5 million dollars (43.9 million euros) – adds that the double passage of tropical cyclone Freddy in February and March 2023, “one year after the devastating tropical cyclone Gombe”, affected “more than one million people, destroyed infrastructure and displaced around 184,000 people”.
According to the report, two million people in Mozambique are in “critical need of assistance and protection”, 834,304 are in the condition of “internally displaced persons” in the north of the country “due to the ongoing conflict” – terrorist attacks mainly in Cabo Delgado over the last almost six years – of which 35 per cent live in resettlement sites and 65 per cent in host communities.
In addition, 79 per cent of the internally displaced are women and children, and there are also 420,200 returnees, “many of them in situations similar to those of internally displaced people, with poor living conditions and lack of access to basic services”.
The UNHCR report adds that 41,668 internally displaced people are in this situation due to “climate-related problems following the impacts of extreme weather events”.
“UNHCR and partners work closely with a range of stakeholders, including the government, to provide life-saving protection services and assistance to refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons, displaced returnees, as well as host communities, while seizing opportunities to invest in and build resilience among communities and facilitate sustainable solutions to displacement. In recent months, around 420,000 people have returned to their areas of origin, many of which lack services and have precarious conditions,” it reads.
The high commission also argues that “all refugee return movements” must “take place in an informed, safe, voluntary and dignified manner”.
“At the same time, UNHCR supports the inclusion of all refugees and internally displaced persons in national services and systems, including national data systems and climate-related contingency planning and response. At the same time, UNHCR is intensifying engagement with development and peacebuilding actors to support the inclusion of displaced and returning populations through the expansion of their respective programmes,” it concludes.
Lusa
