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Urgent needs in Mozambique, Cabo Delgado situation | 7 May 2021

Countries
Mozambique
Sources
UNHCR
Publication date
Origin
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Overview

The situation in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province is a massive, yet largely invisible, humanitarian crisis driven by non-state armed groups in the context of an already fragile situation of chronic under-development, frequent flooding and recurrent disease outbreaks, including COVID-19.
An estimated 713,000 people have now been internally displaced in northern Mozambique since 2017 with the vast majority, 674,000 people, displaced within Cabo Delgado itself. A recent wave of violence at the end of March 2021 saw more than 39,000 people flee the district of Palma, most of whom are accommodated in the local community or in transit centres and sites for IDPs. Thousands more are still trapped in Palma or are still in flight. Among those newly displaced, more than 70% are women and children.
People are desperately in need of food, shelter, water, and education, and seriously exposed to protection-related risks such as gender-based violence and forced recruitment of children. As part of a coordinated inter-agency response, UNHCR is providing IDPs with life-saving assistance but urgently needs more support. So as to scale up life-saving protection and assistance for IDPs in northern Mozambique, UNHCR is urgently appealing for $13.5 million.