Africa-Press – Mozambique. The NGO Refugees International warned on Wednesday that “aid is desperately needed in Mozambique” for the thousands of displaced people caused by a new wave of “gruesome” extremist violence in Cabo Delgado, affecting more than 20,000 people in recent days.
“The recent increase in insurgent attacks across villages and towns in Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique has led to a rapidly growing humanitarian and displacement crisis even as cuts in international aid have hobbled the humanitarian response,” warns Mark Wood, from that Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).
Quoted in a statement by the independent organisation, which was founded in 1979, Wood says that the ” latest surge in attacks by armed groups, including a group that links itself to the Islamic State, has been mostly aimed at civilians and has led to at least 20,000 people being newly displaced, half of them children, as of September 24, 2025′′.
“The attacks have been especially gruesome and unpredictable in the country’s northern province of Cabo Delgado, marked by abductions, killings, and sexual assaults. Many of those displaced have already been forced to flee multiple times, part of a total of 1.3 million people who have been displaced due to conflict, cyclones, and drought since 2017,” the statement reads.
The gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed rebellion since 2017, which has caused thousands of deaths and a humanitarian crisis, with more than a million people displaced since then.
By the end of July, attacks by these groups displaced more than 57,000 people in Chiúre district, south of Cabo Delgado, according to official figures.
Meanwhile, the province has seen an upsurge in attacks in the districts of Chiúre, Muidumbe, Quissanga, Ancuabe and Meluco. More recently, Mocímboa da Praia too, with several deaths reported, in which case the organisation Médecins Sans Frontières suspended its local activities.
‘Humanitarian actors are sounding the alarm that massive cuts in foreign assistance are worsening the humanitarian and security situation,’ the NGO points out, recalling that support from the United States of America (USA) alone has fallen from $821 million in aid to Mozambique in 2024 to $243 million in 2025, with HIV/AIDS programmes, emergency response and health “among the sectors that have lost funding”.
“These cuts are part of a wider picture of aid groups shrinking or ceasing operations altogether due to funding shortages. Some have remained on shoestring budgets, even as aid workers are targeted, and some have had to suspend work in certain areas due to deteriorating security conditions,” says Refugees International.
The NGO’s 2024 report had already highlighted “risks women and girls face in displacement in northern Mozambique, including early and forced marriage, sexual exploitation, and survival sex”.
” The conflict also continues to fuel family separation and an increase in unaccompanied minors,” it emphasises, advocating the re-establishment of US and European Union (EU) support: ” The United States and the European Union need to restore aid to the region. In particular, the European Union’s Humanitarian Aid for Mozambique should scale up its efforts for immediate life-saving assistance. Regional actors must also provide diplomatic and security support to secure the region and ensure humanitarian access”.
It says that “without an immediate surge in humanitarian assistance and global attention, Mozambique’s civilians will face growing devastation as the fighters targeting them are emboldened to expand their reach”.
In 2024 alone, at least 349 people died in attacks in northern Mozambique, most of them claimed by the extremist group Islamic State, an increase of 36% on the previous year, according to a study released by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS), an academic institution of the US government’s Department of Defence.
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