A never-ending conflict

Since October 2017, the northern and central coastal districts of Cabo Delgado have been subjected to deadly violence by groups. These terrorise villages with attacks, beheadings and the looting of food and property. Strategically important transport routes and towns are now under rebel control. As a result, the population, already severely affected by cyclones, hunger and poor health care, is suffering. While some of the rebels are believed to be of foreign origin, many are young people with good local knowledge who have joined the ranks of the insurgents. These same young people simply have no prospects, which unfortunately makes them susceptible to extremism. They have been promised work from various quarters, a better future held out to them. But the cyclones, drought and the already great poverty meant that these promises were not fulfilled and a great lack of perspective spread.

By December 2020, almost half a million people (about a quarter of the population of Cabo Delgado) had fled their villages in the north of Cabo Delgado province to the interior and southern areas of the province, as well as to the neighbouring provinces of Nampula and Niassa. More than half of them are women, almost 15,000 of them are pregnant, and in urgent need of medical care. Yet 36 percent of health facilities across the province have been damaged or even destroyed. Moreover, girls and women have to live in constant fear of being abducted, raped or forced into marriage or prostitution.

Since the beginning of June 2022, after signs of calming down, terrorist attacks have been occurring again. The devastating thing: The attacks now also hit the districts of Ancuabe and Chiúre, where many refugees have only just found shelter in resettlement villages. After months of supposed calm, Islamist militias are again spreading fear and terror. People are beheaded with machetes, villages are burnt down, crops destroyed.