Mozambique Crisis

Mozambique Map
Source: OCHA/ReliefWeb

The country

Mozambique is a country in southeastern Africa that gained independence from Portugal in 1975. Located on the Indian Ocean, the country shares land borders with Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and South Africa. Its capital is Maputo. Mozambique covers an area of 799,380 square kilometers. In 2024, the country's population was estimated at around 33.9 million people. Mozambique is one of the world’s poorest and least developed states.

The humanitarian situation

Despite a temporary improved security environment, the humanitarian crisis in Mozambique's northern province of Cabo Delgado continues to force people to flee their homes. Violence by non-state armed groups (NSAGs) has displaced nearly one million people. 3.1 million children, women, and men in Mozambique will require humanitarian aid in 2025, including some 1.3 million in Cabo Delgado and neighboring Niassa and Nampula provinces, and about 1.8 million across the country due to severe drought. Mozambique is highly susceptible to climate shocks and frequent natural hazards such as drought, floods and tropical storms.

The overall humanitarian situation in Mozambique remains of concern, in particular due to insecurity in Cabo Delgado. In 2022, renewed conflict in northern Mozambique further aggravated the plight of displaced people. As a result, many have been forced to flee multiple times. In 2022, up to one million people were internally displaced, half of them children.

In 2023, the humanitarian situation in northern Mozambique was marked by the steady return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their home districts. IDPs had returned to their communities as a result of improved security, a desire to reunite with their families, and to reclaim their land and cultivate crops.

However, between the end of December 2023 and May 2024, there was a new wave of violence in the north due to attacks by non-state armed groups, which caused more than 100,000 people to flee within the province of Cabo Delgado, but also to the province of Nampula. This is the second largest population displacement since the conflict began in 2017. Around 63 percent of the newly displaced people were children and 23 percent were women.

As of December 2024, approximately 740,000 people were still internally displaced in the country due to violence by armed groups and the devastating impact of the climate crisis.  Although the security situation had improved, some 580,000 women, men, and children remained displaced in Cabo Delgado, Nampula, and Niassa provinces due to protracted insecurity, more than 160,000 people were displaced following the impacts of extreme weather events. Cyclones, floods, and droughts have uprooted hundreds of thousands of people in recent years.

51 percent of internally displaced persons (IDPs) are women and children. Around 45 percent of IDPs are living in relocation sites, while 55 percent are living in host communities. In addition, Mozambique hosts some 25,000 refugees and asylum-seekers.

The armed conflict in northern Mozambique has also exacerbated food insecurity and malnutrition. Families have been forced to abandon their homes and fields, and erratic rains in some parts of the region have worsened crop losses. 

In Mozambique, some 3.3 million people face severe acute food insecurity (IPC phase 3 or worse) between October 2024 and March 2025.  Of these, 773,000 are estimated to be in emergency hunger (IPC phase 4). It is estimated that approximately 144,000 children under the age of 5 are affected by acute malnutrition. 

The main drivers of food insecurity in Mozambique are the impact of an El Niño-induced drought and other climate-related shocks, as well as the conflict in northern Mozambique, including the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula. Approximately 20 million people live in drought-affected areas. In addition to these climate-related shocks, above-average food prices will make it difficult for poor and very poor households to access food from markets. 

Mozambique is considered one of the most vulnerable countries to the effects of global climate change. During the rainy season, which lasts from October to April, it is subject to cyclical flooding and tropical cyclones. People in the southeastern African country are living with the dual impacts of high climate risk and poverty.

In 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy, the longest-lasting tropical cyclone on record, hit Mozambique twice with destructive winds, extreme rainfall and widespread flooding. Freddy's double landfall in February and March 2023 - one year after the devastating Tropical Cyclone Gombe in 2022, caused extensive damage - claimed nearly 200 lives, left more than 184,000 people homeless and affected a total of some 1.2 million men, women and children in the country.

At the end of 2024 and the start of 2025, Mozambique has been hit by two cyclones in just a month, wreaking havoc on communities in its path. These tropical storms have destroyed homes, flooded croplands, and devastated lives and livelihoods. In December 2024, Tropical Cyclone Chido ravaged northern Mozambique, a region already severely affected by armed conflict. 

The storm destroyed homes, displaced thousands, and severely damaged roads and communication networks, hampering relief efforts in areas already hosting large numbers of displaced people. Chido affected 450,000 people and left communities in desperate need of assistance. With 456,000 hectares of farmland destroyed, food insecurity is worsening. 

The latest Cyclone Dikeledi in January 2025 brought heavy rains, strong winds, and impacted some 49,000 people in northern Nampula Province. As the cyclone and rainy season are not over, families are bracing for more extreme weather events this year. Over the past decade, climate shocks have intensified extreme weather events in Eastern and Southern Africa. Community-destroying cyclones like Chido are becoming more common.

Mozambique is currently experiencing its largest cholera outbreak in 25 years. While cholera is endemic in Mozambique, the current outbreak is more persistent than usual and could quickly escalate into an uncontrolled situation that spreads disease and death. 

Mozambique's water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) needs are enormous. In 2022, only 63 percent of Mozambicans had access to basic water services, according to estimates. The situation in the sanitation sector is even more critical, with only 38 percent of the population having access to basic sanitation.

Humanitarian operations in the country remain woefully underfunded. Funding shortfalls last year have hampered humanitarian assistance and limited food distribution. The Mozambique 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), which targeted 1.7 million vulnerable people, was only 39 percent funded as of January 2025. The Mozambique Drought Flash Appeal 2024 was only 32 percent covered.

According to UN estimates, 2.3 million children, women, and men in Mozambique were in need of humanitarian aid in 2024. 

In 2023, some 2 million people were in of need of life-saving and life-sustaining humanitarian assistance and protection in the southeastern African country.  Among them were 1.1 million children. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in 2023, 1.6 million people in northern Mozambique received some form of humanitarian assistance, provided by a total of 73 humanitarian organizations.

The 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Mozambique appealed for US$513 million to target 1.6 million people. At the start of 2024, the 2023 HRP was only 38 percent funded.

Mozambique LocationThe security situation

Mozambique’s northernmost province of Cabo Delgado has been plagued by the rise of violent extremism since 2017. Thousands have reportedly been killed by non-state armed groups. In October 2017, Islamic extremist groups began conducting attacks against civilians and security services in the northern province. 

The Cabo Delgado insurgency is an ongoing conflict primarily between Islamic militants and jihadists seeking to establish an Islamic state in the region and the Mozambican army and security forces. Human rights organizations report that violent extremists have committed serious human rights violations against civilians, which include beheadings, kidnappings, and the use of child soldiers. According to analysts, the insurgency is fueled by socio-economic exclusion amid major mineral and hydrocarbon discoveries in the northern region.

In 2020, the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado deteriorated, with a significant increase in the number and scale of attacks by extremist groups and the resulting humanitarian impact. After a sharp escalation in the first half of 2021, the conflict subsided in early 2022 following the deployment of Rwandan and Southern African Development Community (SADC) forces to help the Mozambican government regain control of areas previously under the control of armed groups.

However, the conflict in northern Mozambique resumed in 2022, for the first time in areas that had not experienced attacks in Cabo Delgado and Nampula. The conflict continues to exacerbate the needs of IDPs and host communities. In late October and November 2022, the activities of non-state armed groups spread into northern Mozambique, causing new displacements and exacerbating the humanitarian needs of conflict-affected populations.

In 2023, violence in Cabo Delgado province decreased significantly compared to 2022. While improved security has eased some humanitarian access constraints and allowed for the return of IDPs, humanitarian needs remain high. As of August 2023, more than 570,000 former IDPs have returned to their homes in northern Mozambique. However, returning IDPs are experiencing poor living conditions and lack of access to basic services. According to OCHA, returnees continue to face critical needs for shelter, water, food and other emergency assistance.

Violence against civilians continued in 2023. Non-state armed groups retained the ability to carry out localized attacks. Over the course of that year, more than 100,000 people were displaced as a result of localized attacks by NSAGs. Since the end of December 2023, large-scale attacks resumed, displacing more than 150,000 people.

Since December 2023, attacks have escalated in the northern province, characterized by violence against civilians, forced displacement, and damage to civilian infrastructure. Insurgents have targeted security forces and civilians, and have made unprecedented efforts to burn churches.

The highest level of displacement occurred in February of 2024 when more than 90,000 people fled their homes. The attacks came in the middle of the harvest season, leaving farmers with no choice but to abandon their fields and livestock. Between mid-April and mid-May 2024, violence by non-state armed groups displaced nearly 60,000 people in northern areas of Cabo Delgado.

NSAG violence and resultant displacement increased in October and November last year, particularly in Cabo Delgado Province,
driving protection concerns and limiting humanitarian access. In October 2024, the international humanitarian organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) suspended much of its relief operations in northern Mozambique as movement in the field remained too dangerous, and expressed grave concern about the intensifying crisis in the country, which has compounded an already dire humanitarian situation. 

Donations

Your donation for the Mozambique emergency can help United Nations agencies, international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their local partners to rapidly provide water, food, medicine, shelter and other aid to the people who need it most.

There are currently only a few active appeals for the Mozambique crisis. You may also consider making an unearmarked donation to organizations that are active in the country.

To find other organizations to which you can donate, visit: Humanitarian Crisis Relief, Refugees and IDPs, Children in Need, Hunger and Food Insecurity, Medical Humanitarian Aid, Vulnerable Groups, Faith-Based Humanitarian Organizations, and Human Rights Organizations.

Further Information

Last updated: 18/01/2025

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