67,000 displaced in Mozambique by latest wave of insurgent attacks – Government

MAPUTO, Mozambique

Mozambique’s government said on Tuesday that 67,321 people had fled the armed attacks in recent weeks in Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique, adding that some people are returning to their points of origin.

“At this point, we’re talking about 67,321 displaced people, which corresponds to 14,217 families,” said Filimão Suaze, the cabinet spokesman, speaking at a press conference at the end of its weekly session.

The displaced people have fled to other parts of Cabo Delgado province and to the district of Eráti, in Nampula province, and are staying in accommodation centres or with relatives, Suaze said.

The authorities are endeavouring to “improve the accommodation conditions” of the displaced, he continued.

“But we are also seeing a movement of some people returning to their places of origin, as the causes that led them to flee dissipate,” the cabinet spokesman added.

Asked if the government had discussed the possibility of imposing a state of emergency in Cabo Delgado, Filimão Suaze replied that this scenario “does not arise”.

According to an estimate released today by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), with data up to Sunday, the new wave of terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado has caused 58,116 displaced people in just over two weeks.

According to a weekly bulletin from the intergovernmental agency, the attacks took place between 8 and 25 February, mainly in the districts of Chiùre and Macomia, with 54,534 and 2,626 displaced in that period respectively, but mainly children (35,295).

“Attacks and the fear of attacks by armed groups,” says the IOM, occurred above all in Ocua, Mazeze and Chiùre-Velho, in the Chiùre district, with the displaced fleeing to the town of Chiùre (15,354) or to Erati, in the neighbouring province of Nampula (33,218).

IOM records show that 11,901 families were displaced by boat, bus or on foot in just over two weeks of February in the south of Cabo Delgado province.

In the same bulletin, the IOM states that between 22 December 2023 and 25 February 2024, “sporadic attacks and fear of attacks by armed groups” in Macomia, Chiure, Mecufi, Mocímboa da Praia and Muidumbe have already led to the flight of 15,470 families, totalling 71,681 people.

Several terrorist attacks in the south of Cabo Delgado have caused deaths among the population over the last two weeks in villages in the Chiùre district, leading to the flight of at least 13,000 people to the town of Chiùre alone, concentrated in resettlement camps set up in three schools, but also in family homes, according to a source from the local authority.

In recent weeks, the extremist group Islamic State (IS) has claimed several attacks and fatalities, especially in the south of Cabo Delgado province, after a period of several months of calm.

The province has been facing attacks claimed by IS for six years, which has led to a military response since July 2021, with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts near gas projects.