The United States of America will provide an additional $116 million this year to support people displaced by armed violence in Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country, an official source announced on Wednesday, July 20.
With the new amount, the U.S. assistance to Mozambique this year rises to $167 million, said Urza Zeya, U.S. Under Secretary for Civil Security, Democracy and Human Rights, during a press conference after a meeting with the President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi.
“With this support, the U.S. will help about 800,000 internally displaced persons,” Urza Zeya said, noting that the amount will be used for “food and nutritional assistance and to meet the health, water and agricultural needs” of the displaced.
Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas, but terrorized since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
There are about 800,000 internally displaced people due to the conflict, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and about 4,000 deaths, according to the conflict registration project ACLED.
Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops with Rwandan support, later joined by SADC, allowed the rebels to recover areas where they had been present, but their flight has provoked new attacks in other districts used as passage or refuge.
