UN raises alert for 780,000 people displaced in Mozambique, most due to violence in north
The United Nations’ refugee chief has raised a new alert over 780,000 displaced people in Mozambique
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The United Nations' refugee chief raised a new alert Thursday over 780,000 displaced people in Mozambique, the vast majority of them because of a seven-year insurgency by a jihadi group that has thrown the north of the country into turmoil.
Filippo Grandi, the U.N.'s high commissioner for refugees, was on a visit to Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province, where an Islamic State-affiliated group has waged attacks on communities since 2017 and where some 1.3 million people were forced to flee their homes to escape killings and beheadings.
Around 600,000 have returned home, many to shattered communities where houses, markets, churches, schools and health facilities have been destroyed.
Grandi's visit came amid an upsurge in new attacks by the Islamic State Mozambique group in Cabo Delgado since January following a period of relative calm in 2023. They have caused 80,000 new displacements, taking the total number of people forced to abandon their homes and villages and currently displaced in Mozambique to over three quarters of a million, according to the U.N.
