UNHCR reports 300,000 people displaced in northern Mozambique since July, with aid efforts overwhelmed as jihadist violence intensifies and spreads.
GENEVA: The United Nations has expressed grave concern over the escalating displacement crisis in northern Mozambique.
UNHCR representative Xavier Creach stated that approximately 300,000 people have been forced from their homes since July due to intensifying jihadist violence.
“I think we can talk approximately of a minimum of 300,000 displaced over there since July,” he told reporters in Geneva.
Creach noted this figure only includes registered individuals, with many more cases going unrecorded.
Violence in Cabo Delgado province has spilled into neighbouring Nampula, causing a rapid new wave of displacement.
The UN refugee agency reported almost 100,000 people fled the region in the past two weeks alone.
Attacks on villages and the conflict’s spread into previously safe districts are severely hampering humanitarian aid delivery.
Creach described “very challenging needs” in the region and a “largely insufficient response” from aid groups.
UNHCR called for urgent international support, warning that humanitarian actors cannot sustain their response without additional resources.
The conflict, which erupted in 2017, has now displaced more than 1.3 million people across Mozambique.
According to the ACLED conflict monitor, the insurgency has caused over 6,200 deaths.
