Human Rights Watch (HRW) states that human rights in Mozambique were affected in 2025 by food insecurity, intensified terrorist attacks and the abduction of minors in Cabo Delgado, femicide, and the repression of post-election protests.
In a general characterisation of the Mozambican situation, the international non-governmental organisation (NGO) indicates in its annual report (pages 310 to 314) that the conflict in Cabo Delgado intensified last year, leading to increased forced displacement, with victims lacking access to health services and humanitarian aid, as well as a rise in child abductions.
“Since January 2025, according to the United Nations, over 95,000 people have fled insecurity in the region, with Chiúre, Ancuabe, and Muidumbe the most impacted. The conflict has negatively affected access to public health care and humanitarian aid. Fighting led to humanitarian organisations suspending activities, and armed groups’ ransom demands and extortion hindered movement for aid workers,” it reads.
HRW reports that terrorist groups have increased the abduction of children in Cabo Delgado, which has been the target of attacks since 2017, “using them to transport looted goods, for forced labour, and as fighters against government forces”.
The document also indicates that 2025 was marked by continued post-election violence, which began in late 2024, with unidentified armed men forcibly detaining and shooting members of the Mozambican opposition, with no criminal accountability to date.
The NGO points out that at least 10 members of opposition parties were shot dead between October 2024 and March 2025.
“The post-election violence severely affected many children. Security forces deployed to suppress nationwide protests killed dozens of children and detained hundreds, in many cases for days, without notifying their families, in violation of international human rights law,” the document reads.
In 2025, “journalists and human rights activists reported cases of kidnappings, murder attempts, threats, and harassment” in Mozambique, HRW reports. “In June, Mozambican soldiers temporarily detained, questioned, and seized the equipment of 16 journalists in Macomia, Cabo Delgado,” it mentions.
“Mozambique experienced an increase in reported cases of gender-based violence, in particular killings. As of September 2025, a local women’s rights group, ‘Observatório da Mulher’, had recorded at least 43 cases of femicide and 42 cases of rape against women and girls. President Chapo urged law enforcement institutions to step up actions to combat female homicide, particularly in the central region, admitting that they are of ‘alarming proportions’,” HRW also points out.
The NGO also noted that Mozambique suffered from food insecurity last year, caused mainly by drought due to the El Niño phenomenon, with a “significant decrease” in agricultural production, especially in the provinces of Tete and Manica in the central region, and Gaza and Inhambane in the south, due to below-average rainfall, indicating that around 2.1 million people faced critical levels of food insecurity between April and September 2025.
HRW is an independent international organisation with representation in more than 40 countries, working as part of a movement to defend human dignity and promote human rights worldwide. In addition to defending human rights, it investigates abuses, disseminates the results and “pressures” governments to move forward in resolving conflicts, it said.
Source: Lusa