Mozambique: OCHA Recorded Over 12,000 Displaced Persons Last June

Maputo — The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded a total of 12,174 displaced persons last June as a result of the Islamist terrorism plaguing the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, since 2017.

According to an OCHA report, almost 80 percent of the victims are women and children, bringing the total number of affected persons to over 26,000 since the beginning of the year.

"Women and children represent 79 percent of the displaced persons in the last month, while humanitarian partners reported concerns related to family separation, gender-based violence, loss of documentation, and psychosocial distress. Although monthly displacement figures remained below those recorded during much of 2025, the increase observed over the last two months demonstrates the fragility of the security situation in northern Mozambique", reads the report.

Population movements, according to the document, continue to occur primarily within the affected districts themselves or toward neighboring districts, and humanitarian needs in conflict-affected areas continue to exceed available resources, within a context where the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan received only 29 percent of its required funding by June.

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"Out of the 534 million dollars required to respond to the consequences of the conflict and floods in Mozambique, 152 million dollars) had been mobilized. The funding shortfall is affecting several sectors of the humanitarian response, with a special impact on education, logistics, and nutrition, threatening to leave vulnerable families without adequate support to meet their most urgent needs", reads the document.

OCHA notes that a significant portion of the displacement movements this year already corresponds to repeated displacements, reflecting persistent instability in several areas of the province. There were 2,562 people displaced for the first time in 2026, 7,922 for the second time, 657 for the third, 2,769 for the fourth, and 12,274 on five or more occasions, highlighting the prolonged vulnerability of the populations affected by the conflict.

The report also mentions that Mozambique accounted for 662,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) as of February this year, mostly concentrated in the provinces affected by the armed insurgency in the northern region of the country.

It is further highlighted that humanitarian needs remain high in other regions affected by recent crises, namely floods, with an estimated 620,000 people requiring assistance, of whom approximately 417,000 have already received some form of support.

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