Nearly 100,000 displaced in Mozambique following militant attacks: Reports

More than 99,000 people including 61,492 children have fled their homes due to renewed violence in northern Mozambique, Save the Children said Tuesday.

In a statement, the British charity said multiple cases of violent confrontation between armed groups and security forces had been reported in several districts across Cabo Delgado province.

It said more than 99,313 people fled their homes between Dec. 22 and March 3.

Cabo Delgado has been restive for years, with one armed militant group there believed to be affiliated with the Daesh/ISIS terrorist group.

In 2021, the group attacked the coastal town of Palma near the border with Tanzania, killing dozens and injuring scores of others.

Save the Children said the conflict in Cabo Delgado, now in its seventh year, has taken a devastating human toll.

“There are repeated reports of beheadings and abductions, including multiple child victims. The conflict has already left 540,000 people displaced, with more than half of them children,” the charity said.

Save the Children has made an urgent appeal to protect children, saying “this wave of violence is a renewed attack on education, with more than 100 schools closed across six districts in Cabo Delgado, including an additional 17 schools in Nampula, affecting nearly 71,000 children,” the statement said.

The charity further revealed that there are some children who are seven years old now longing to go to school for the first time this year but are now fleeing for their lives.

‘‘These children have never known life without war and sadly belong to a growing generation of children whose childhood has become elusive,” it said.

Fresh clashes broke out few weeks ago in Ocua, Mazeze and Chiure-Velho, in Chiure district, with the displaced people fleeing to the town of Chiure or to Erati in neighboring Nampula province.

The northern province of Mozambique is rich in natural gas, and companies such as France’s Total SE are to extract liquefied natural gas (LNG) from offshore sites in the Indian Ocean.