Nearly 60,000 people have fled their homes in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province over the past two weeks due to a surge in violence linked to an ongoing insurgency by fighters affiliated with ISIL (ISIS), according to the United Nations.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Tuesday that attacks beginning on July 20 have displaced 57,034 individuals representing 13,343 families. The district of Chiúre has been the most severely affected, with over 42,000 people forced to flee, more than half of them children.
“So far, around 30,000 displaced people have received food, water, shelter, and essential household items,” said Paola Emerson, head of the Mozambique office for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), speaking to AFP. She noted that OCHA is preparing to scale up its response, but current efforts fall short of meeting the growing humanitarian needs.
“The response is not yet at the scale required,” Emerson warned, citing significant cuts to international aid from the United States and other donor nations. The UN’s 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan for Mozambique has received only 19% of its requested funding, raising concerns about the sustainability of life-saving assistance.
The IOM also highlighted serious protection risks, including lack of safety, missing documentation, and forced relocations, which are compounding the vulnerability of displaced populations.
Mozambique has been grappling with a violent insurgency in its northern region for over eight years. The group behind the attacks, known locally as al-Shabab (unrelated to the Somali militant group of the same name), has caused widespread devastation. Rwandan forces have been deployed to assist Mozambique in countering the rebellion.
According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), more than 6,100 people have been killed since the conflict began, including 364 fatalities recorded last year by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies.
Cabo Delgado is home to significant offshore natural gas reserves. The violence previously forced French energy company TotalEnergies to suspend its $20 billion gas project in 2021. The company has expressed hopes to resume operations this summer.
Human Rights Watch recently reported a disturbing rise in child abductions by the armed group, with children being used as fighters, laborers, or forced into marriage. The organization emphasized that recruiting or using children under 15 in hostilities constitutes a war crime under international law.
