UN warns nearly 100,000 displaced in 2 weeks as violence spreads in northern Mozambique

GENEVA 

The UN refugee agency warned on Tuesday that escalating attacks in northern Mozambique have triggered massive new displacement, with “close to 100,000 displaced in the past fortnight alone” as violence spills into previously unaffected areas.

Speaking to reporters virtually in Geneva, UNHCR’s representative in Mozambique, Xavier Creach, said the agency is “gravely concerned as intensifying attacks on villages and the rapid spillover of the conflict into previously safe districts force tens of thousands of people to flee across northern Mozambique,” stressing that humanitarian capacity “is not keeping pace” with the scale of needs.

People who fled described “armed groups stormed their villages, often at night, burning homes, attacking civilians, and forcing families to flee with nothing,” he said. Many endured chaotic escapes that separated families, with some now displaced for the second or third time this year.

The conflict, which began in the province of Cabo Delgado in 2017, has already uprooted more than 1.3 million people, according to the UNHCR. But Creach said 2025 has brought “a dangerous shift,” with attacks spreading beyond Cabo Delgado into Nampula province, where civilians arrive at makeshift sites “walking for days in extreme fear” and often “without any civil documentation and no access to essential services.”

Women and girls face heightened risks, he said, especially as the crisis unfolds during the global 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence. Communal shelters lacking lighting and privacy are exposing them to “new risks of sexual and gender violence,” while older people and those with disabilities struggle in inaccessible sites, the representative stressed.

Children are arriving “exhausted, traumatized, and weakened after days of walking,” with many unaccompanied or separated, Creach said. Humanitarian teams are working to identify high-risk individuals, reunite families and provide counselling, dignity kits and mobility devices, but he warned the response is running out of resources.

With 2025 funding at just 50% of requirements and needs rising sharply, the UNHCR called for urgent international support, saying humanitarian actors “cannot sustain the response without additional support and resources.”

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