The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed grave concern on Tuesday as intensifying attacks on villages and the rapid spread of the conflict into previously safe districts forced tens of thousands of people to flee across northern Mozambique. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), recent attacks have displaced some 108,000 people from Memba District in Nampula Province alone.
While needs are rising at an unprecedented rate, humanitarian and government actors are unable to keep pace, and collective efforts remain insufficient to provide the required level of protection and assistance.
"People reaching safety say they escaped in fear as armed groups stormed their villages – often at night – burning homes, attacking civilians, and forcing families to flee with nothing," said Xavier Creach, UNHCR's Mozambique Representative, at a press briefing on Tuesday at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
“Many described chaotic escapes, with parents losing sight of their children and older relatives left behind in the panic. For many, this is the second or third time they have been displaced this year, as the attacks follow them into new areas.”
The violence, which began in Cabo Delgado Province in 2017, has already displaced or otherwise affected over 1.3 million people. However, 2025 has seen a dangerous shift: attacks are now happening simultaneously and spreading beyond Cabo Delgado into Nampula Province, threatening communities that had previously hosted displaced families.
Acute protection risks
Even after reaching safer areas, protection risks remain acute. The sudden influx is putting huge pressure on fragile host communities, who are also facing insecurity. Schools, churches and open spaces are crowded with newly arrived families, many of whom are sleeping outdoors.
UNHCR’s Creach stressed that children arrive exhausted, traumatized and weakened after days of walking. Some are malnourished and have swollen feet. Many of these children are unaccompanied or separated from their families, alone in unfamiliar surroundings and facing fear and uncertainty.
“As the violence spreads rapidly, civilians have almost no warning and are arriving at makeshift sites, including schools and open spaces, in Nampula Province. Many flee without any civil documentation and no access to essential services, walking for days in extreme fear,” he said.
The lack of safe routes and basic support leaves families, especially women and girls, at a heightened risk of exploitation and abuse.
“Despite scant resources, protection partners have reactivated and strengthened some management and referral structures to provide affected women and girls with confidential reporting and safer access to medical, psychosocial and legal assistance,” Creach said.
However, the lack of lighting and privacy in communal shelters exposes women and girls, who have already faced perilous journeys to reach safety, to new risks of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Meanwhile, older people and those with disabilities face an increased risk to their protection and struggle in sites that are neither accessible nor equipped to meet their needs, such as health services, toilets, bathing areas and water points.
Creach noted that humanitarian teams on the ground are identifying those at the greatest risk, helping families to reunite, and conducting community outreach to share information and strengthen the safety of new arrivals.
“Help desks have also been established to provide counselling and mental health support, distribute dignity kits and mobility devices for people with disabilities, and assist families in replacing lost civil documents in coordination with local authorities,” he added.
Humanitarian response efforts are running out of resources
However, as needs grow by the day, the humanitarian response is running out of resources, leaving thousands of families in limbo. With displacement rising rapidly and very little funding remaining for the final month of the year, critical services, including protection, shelter, food, water and sanitation, are under severe strain.
“Humanitarian actors collectively – UN agencies, national and international NGOs, government institutions, the private sector, and communities themselves through local solidarity efforts – cannot sustain the response without additional support and resources,” Creach said.
UNHCR is therefore calling for urgent international support to protect those forced to flee, reinforce overstretched host communities, and prevent the crisis from deteriorating further, as the conflict widens and civilians face mounting danger.
At the same time, the UN agency emphasizes that addressing the underlying causes of the conflict is crucial to restoring stability and breaking the cycle of violence and displacement in northern Mozambique.
UNHCR will require US$38.2 million in 2026 to meet the rising needs in northern Mozambique, at a time when funding stands at only 50 percent of the needed $42.7 million for 2025.
"Urgent support is needed to prevent the crisis from worsening," the UNHCR official added.
Vulnerable people in Mozambique are not receiving adequate humanitarian assistance
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also warned in a report, released on Tuesday, that vulnerable people in Mozambique are not receiving adequate humanitarian assistance.
As of the end of October, around 969,000 people had received some form of assistance — about 88 percent of the targeted population of 1.2 million in Cabo Delgado Province, yet a 33 percent decline compared to the 1.4 million people reached during the same period in 2024.
OCHA reported that food distributions have been reduced to every two months and cover only 39 percent of caloric needs. Excluding food assistance, the number of people reached drops to 592,000. At the same time, the number of aid agencies on the ground has fallen from 78 to 67.
The 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) sought $352 million to assist 1.3 million people affected by conflict across 15 districts in Cabo Delgado. As of today, only 28 percent has been received against the requirement - some $96.8 million - reflecting a nearly 50 percent decrease from 2024 levels.
The humanitarian country team is urging donors to increase their financial support in order to ensure that comprehensive humanitarian assistance can be provided, particularly as the rainy and cyclonic season is approaching fast.
Climate-related disasters loom large
The southeastern African country is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events and frequent natural disasters related to the climate crisis, including droughts, floods and tropical storms.
In the first half of 2025, Mozambique was hit by two tropical cyclones in less than three months: Cyclone Dikeledi in January and Cyclone Jude in March. These affected over 1.3 million people, causing dozens of deaths and severe damage to critical infrastructure. Throughout the 2024/25 rainy season, the country was hit by three cyclones: Dikeledi in January, Jude in March and Chido in December 2024.
Mozambique is currently facing multiple crises, with an estimated 5.2 million people — including around 3.4 million children — requiring urgent humanitarian assistance nationwide to cope with the effects of conflict, cyclones and drought. This includes around 1.3 million people in Cabo Delgado and neighboring Niassa and Nampula provinces.