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UN warns of Mozambique humanitarian crisis

March 30, 2021

The UN's World Food Program says there is a deepening humanitarian crisis in the north of Mozambique as jihadi gunmen force locals to flee.

https://p.dw.com/p/3rOrv
Officers guard a police station destroyed partially by militants
Security forces are battling a jihadist insurgency in the north of the countryImage: Roberto Paquete/DW

Mozambique's rebels controlled about half of the strategic town of Palma on Tuesday, a week after a jihadi attack deepened a humanitarian crisis in the country's north.

More than 900,000 people in Mozambique now require food aid, according to the UN World Food Program.

"It is a fast-evolving conflict situation and large numbers of people are fleeing through the bush, with nothing, nothing by the clothes on their backs," Lola Castro, the regional director for WFP told the AP news agency.

What happened in Mozambique?

Hundreds of militants stormed Palma on Wednesday, targeting shops, banks and a military barracks. Seven people were killed trying to escape a siege on a hotel.

Locals are fleeing Palma for Pemba in the south
Locals are fleeing Palma for Pemba in the southImage: DW

Local media reports said as many as 200 gunmen were still actively operating there, with thousands of residents fleeing to nearby Tanzania or the south of the country.

Mozambique: Islamist terror on the Indian Ocean

Colonel Chongo Vidigal told Portgual's RTP that there were "sporadic and somewhat disorganized shootings" in the area where dozens were killed after an attack by the jihadist organization Al Shabab on Wednesday.

The strike by the group, which has ties to the Islamic State (IS), also risks jeopardizing the multi-billion-dollar investment in offshore gas fields.

Palma is a city close to a multi-million dollar gas project, one of the main ones in the hands of the French oil company Total, which has decided to suspend operations it planned to resume this week in the area. 

How long have these attacks been happening?

Al Shabab, which is unrelated to Somalia's eponymous jihadist group, has been terrorizing northern Mozambique since 2017.

The three-year insurgency of the rebels, who are primarily disaffected young Muslim men, has taken more than 2,600 lives and displaced an estimated 670,000 people, according to the UN.

Tourism hit hard in Mozambique

Officials in Portugal, Mozambique's former colonial power, said on Tuesday that it would send 60 soldiers to help train local special forces.

Lionel Dyck, director of the Dyck Advisory Group, is helping the police battle the insurgents.

"It's actually quite dire on the ground. It's chaos because there's still no real control and there won't be control for some time," Dyck, a retired colonel in the Zimbabwean army, said.

jf/msh (AP, EFE)