The United Nations on Wednesday, disclosed militant attacks in northern Mozambique have created a “worsening humanitarian crisis,” estimating that over half a million people had now fled their homes.
A shadowy militant group that calls itself Ahlu Sunnah Wal-Jama has terrorized residents in gas-rich Cabo Delgado province since 2017, ransacking villages in a campaign to establish an Islamist caliphate.
The group, after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019, intensified its attacks, sometimes carrying out executions and beheadings and abducting women and children.
According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) group, no fewer than 2,500 people have died, over half of them civilians.
Thousands have had to flee their homes, mainly seeking refuge with friends and relatives in the regional capital Pemba, due to the militant attacks.
“The United Nations is deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian crisis and escalating violence forcing thousands to flee in Cabo Delgado province,” the UN’s southern and eastern Africa directors said in a joint statement.
“According to the government, militant attacks by non-state groups have forced more than 565,000 people to flee … abandoning their crops and livelihoods.”
They added that the upcoming rainy season and the coronavirus pandemic have only aggravated existing issues like the shortage of food, sanitation and schooling among the displaced.
The UN has called for more aid and resources to help uprooted families start from scratch, as they were “completely reliant on humanitarian assistance”.
“We reckon that 1.6 million people are in need of help,” UN resident Mozambique coordinator Mytra Kaulard said in an online press briefing.
“There is a cholera epidemic in Cabo Delgado that we are struggling to contain,” she added.
The UN’s statement coincided with a three-day visit by Portugal’s foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva, on behalf of the European Union, to discuss security situation in its former colony, which is constantly getting worse.
Mozambican forces have struggled to regain control of Cabo Delgado, which also houses Africa’s three largest liquid natural gas (LNG) projects.
Militants have so far seized large swathes of territory, including the key port town of Mocimboa da Praia — about 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of a $20 billion gas exploration project led by Total, the French energy giant.
In late December, insurgency forced the company to suspend construction on its LNG site.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne had a meeting this week and the president vowed to “establish a security plan” to safeguard the project.
