Nearly 300,000 displaced as Mozambique violence spreads: UN
UN refugee agency says attacks are spilling into previously safe districts, overwhelming aid efforts and heightening risks for women and children.
The UN said it was "gravely concerned" at the number of civilians fleeing violence in northern Mozambique, where it says around 300,000 people have been displaced in recent months.
An insurgency in the Cabo Delgado province has caused the deaths of over 6,200, according to the Global conflict monitoring group ACLED. Violence has also spilled into the neighbouring Nampula province.
Earlier on Tuesday, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said violence had pushed almost 100,000 people to flee the region over the past two weeks alone.
And in the last three months, "a minimum of 287,000" people have fled, according to UNHCR representative Xavier Creach.
"I would say this figure is only the people who have been registered," he told reporters in Geneva, adding that "many more" individual cases have gone unrecorded.
"I think we can talk approximately of a minimum of 300,000 displaced over there since July," he said.
‘Intensifying attacks’
Since then, the agency has observed "intensifying attacks on villages and the rapid spillover of the conflict into previously safe districts", making the provision of humanitarian aid more difficult.
Creach described "very challenging needs" in the region and a "largely insufficient response".
"Humanitarian actors collectively... cannot sustain the response without additional support and resources," UNHCR said in a statement, calling for "urgent international support".
Since the current conflict erupted in 2017, more than 1.3 million people in Mozambique have been displaced, according to the agency.
‘New risks’
Women and girls face heightened risks, he said, especially as the crisis unfolds during the global 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence. Communal shelters lacking lighting and privacy are exposing them to "new risks of sexual and gender violence," while older people and those with disabilities struggle in inaccessible sites, the representative stressed.
Children are arriving "exhausted, traumatised, and weakened after days of walking," with many unaccompanied or separated, Creach said.
Humanitarian teams are working to identify high-risk individuals, reunite families and provide counselling, dignity kits and mobility devices, but he warned the response is running out of resources.
With 2025 funding at just 50 percent of requirements and needs rising sharply, the UNHCR called for urgent international support, saying humanitarian actors "cannot sustain the response without additional support and resources."
In recent months, violence has surged as all 17 districts of Cabo Delgado were hit, and around 22,000 people were displaced in a single week.
The mounting violence has triggered one of the region’s worst humanitarian crises in years, with hundreds of thousands uprooted and a massive strain on food, water and services.