Mozambique in humanitarian crisis as Islamic State causes half a million to flee
The UN says the displaced people are in a dire situation, with overcrowding, malnutrition and a lack of essentials, including food and water
20 January 2021 - 14:20
byEmma Rumney
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Médecins Sans Frontières camps for refugees fleeing violence in the northern Mozambique province of Cabo Delgado are mushrooming in the provincial capital of Pemba. Picture: MSF
More than half a million people have fled their homes due to an Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique, and the violence and humanitarian crisis will worsen without international help, UN officials said on Wednesday.
“If nothing is done soon, we won’t have only 535,000 displaced people. We won’t have only 2,000 people killed by the conflict, but tens of thousands,” said Valentin Tapsoba, regional director for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
The displaced people are in a dire situation, with overcrowding, malnutrition and a lack of essentials, including food and water, the officials said in an online news briefing.
Insurgents staged their first attack in Cabo Delgado province — where oil giants such as Total are involved in big gas projects — in 2017 and pledged allegiance to Islamic State two years later.
The conflict has escalated since, with attacks growing in scale and frequency and the militants regularly taking and holding entire towns. Mozambique is predominantly Christian but has a Muslim minority, mostly living in the north.
The insecurity has left aid agencies unable to access a huge swathe of the coastal province.
At the beginning of 2020, about 18,000 people had been displaced by the conflict, Lola Castro, World Food Programme (WFP) regional director said. In the second half of the year a rise in people fleeing the violence pushed that number up to more than half a million.
Now, some households in the provincial capital Pemba are hosting many other families. One had opened its home to 66 other people who all slept in one room and shared one latrine, Tapsoba said.
“The situation in Cabo Delgado is appalling,” Castro said.
The briefing followed a visit to Pemba by the UN officials.
Despite its natural resources, Mozambique remains one of the poorest countries in the world. It was locked in a civil war following independence from Portugal in 1975 that lasted until 1992.
Although it has had democratic rule since then, elections have often been challenged and Renamo guerrillas fought a low-level insurgency against their long-time adversary, the ruling Frelimo, from 2013 to 2019.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Mozambique in humanitarian crisis as Islamic State causes half a million to flee
The UN says the displaced people are in a dire situation, with overcrowding, malnutrition and a lack of essentials, including food and water
More than half a million people have fled their homes due to an Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique, and the violence and humanitarian crisis will worsen without international help, UN officials said on Wednesday.
“If nothing is done soon, we won’t have only 535,000 displaced people. We won’t have only 2,000 people killed by the conflict, but tens of thousands,” said Valentin Tapsoba, regional director for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
The displaced people are in a dire situation, with overcrowding, malnutrition and a lack of essentials, including food and water, the officials said in an online news briefing.
Insurgents staged their first attack in Cabo Delgado province — where oil giants such as Total are involved in big gas projects — in 2017 and pledged allegiance to Islamic State two years later.
The conflict has escalated since, with attacks growing in scale and frequency and the militants regularly taking and holding entire towns. Mozambique is predominantly Christian but has a Muslim minority, mostly living in the north.
The insecurity has left aid agencies unable to access a huge swathe of the coastal province.
At the beginning of 2020, about 18,000 people had been displaced by the conflict, Lola Castro, World Food Programme (WFP) regional director said. In the second half of the year a rise in people fleeing the violence pushed that number up to more than half a million.
Now, some households in the provincial capital Pemba are hosting many other families. One had opened its home to 66 other people who all slept in one room and shared one latrine, Tapsoba said.
“The situation in Cabo Delgado is appalling,” Castro said.
The briefing followed a visit to Pemba by the UN officials.
Despite its natural resources, Mozambique remains one of the poorest countries in the world. It was locked in a civil war following independence from Portugal in 1975 that lasted until 1992.
Although it has had democratic rule since then, elections have often been challenged and Renamo guerrillas fought a low-level insurgency against their long-time adversary, the ruling Frelimo, from 2013 to 2019.
Reuters
Exxon and Total review Mozambique gas sharing deal
Zimbabwe offers help after Islamist attack in Mozambique
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Related Articles
Cyril Ramaphosa’s AU envoys make no progress in Ethiopia
Mozambique charges former finance minister Manuel Chang
Mozambique publishes proposed model for sovereign wealth fund
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.