Hundreds of thousands newly displaced as Islamic State insurgency expands in Mozambique

"More than 1 million people have been displaced, many of them two, three or even four times. Neither the Mozambican army nor a Rwandan intervention have managed to quell the insurgency, which has ravaged northern Mozambique since October 2017, when militants from Islamic State-Mozambique, an affiliate of the main IS group in the Middle East, carried out their first attacks, in Mocimboa da Praia in Cabo Delgado province in the north-east."

"The group drew global attention in March 2021 with an attack on the town of Palma. More than 600 people were killed in the assault and the military's subsequent recapturing of the town, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a non-profit conflict monitor, including foreign workers on a multibillion-dollar Total liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. Rwanda, whose military is better equipped and trained than Mozambique's, deployed 1,000 troops to Cabo Delgado in July 2021, initially pushing back the militants."

"Rwandan troops leave for Mozambique to help combat the escalating insurgency. Photograph: Jean Bizimana/Reuters More than 100,000 people were displaced in November alone, according to the International Organization for Migration, after Mozambican and Rwandan operations pushed IS fighters south, where the insurgents made their furthest incursion yet into Nampula province. At the end of November, more than 350,000 people had been displaced, up from to 240,000 a year earlier."

An Islamic State-affiliated insurgency has ravaged northern Mozambique since October 2017, repeatedly displacing civilians and attacking towns such as Mocimboa da Praia and Palma. The Palma assault in March 2021 killed more than 600 people, including foreign workers on a Total LNG project. Rwandan forces deployed from July 2021 and increased troop levels to an estimated 4,000–5,000, but violence against civilians has persisted and risen. Displacement surged again in November, with over 100,000 newly uprooted and more than 350,000 displaced by month-end. Competing global crises and declining foreign aid have left the humanitarian emergency under-resourced and unresolved.

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