The non-governmental organization (NGO) Doctors Without Borders (MSF) estimated this Monday that more than 80,000 people have fled terrorist attacks this year in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, asking for food aid and psychological support.
“Six years after the start of brutal conflict in northern Mozambique, people in Cabo Delgado still live in fear. In 2024 alone, more than 80,000 people were forced to flee due to attacks by armed groups,” MSF said.
“Displaced families are in dire need of food, shelter, basic necessities, and medical and mental health care,” the organization said.
The text quotes MSF psychologist Esperanza Chinhanga from the Macomia region as saying that “displaced people are often deeply traumatized by the violence.”
Some people feel anxious, experience panic attacks, repetitive thoughts, insomnia and tend to act isolated, Chinhanja said.
“Some say they have lost the meaning of life and mention thoughts of suicide,” he described.
MSF recalls that since 2017, when armed attacks began in Cabo Delgado province, families have been forced to flee their homes several times.
“Most of them have suffered or witnessed extreme violence, including murder, sexual violence, kidnapping, extortion, and have seen their villages burned,” the statement said.
Many saw or saw their family and/or neighbors killed, beheaded, or shot to death. Some people lost their entire family, the note says.
“The violence has not subsided and people continue to flee repeatedly. In January 2024, approximately 76,000 people who had been displaced in recent years were in Macomia. In February, around 3,600 more people were displaced by multiple attacks in the area. Their stories are heartbreaking. “, he emphasizes.
A total of 72 children have gone missing as a result of terrorist attacks that have occurred in recent weeks in the region of Chiure, Cabo Delgado province, in northern Mozambique, local authorities said this Monday.
“After the exodus of the population from Chiure to Erati, we have a population of 61 families who complained about their children, 29 were reintegrated, leaving about 72,” said Albertine Oussene, provincial director of the Social Center for Gender, Children and Action in Nampula. , the province in which the Erati district is located, which welcomes displaced people from Chiure.
After months of relative normalcy in areas of Cabo Delgado affected by armed violence, the province has been registering new movements and attacks for weeks by rebel groups that have restricted traffic at some points on the few paved roads that give access to several areas.
Official government data shows a new wave of attacks has forced 67,321 people to flee their homelands in recent weeks. Mozambican authorities justify the incursions as a “movement of small groups of terrorists” who fled their bases south of Cabo Delgado. after a period of relative stability.
Cabo Delgado province has faced an armed insurgency for six years, with the extremist group Islamic State claiming responsibility for some attacks.
The insurgency has led to a military response since July 2021, backed by Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating areas near gas projects, but new waves of attacks have emerged in the south of the region.
The conflict has already displaced one million people, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) has killed nearly 4,000 people.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal

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