Mozambique: Almost 47,000 people displaced from Palma – UN

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Mozambique: Almost 47,000 people displaced from Palma – UN

9:05 CAT | 11 May 2021

File photo: Twitter / @IOM_Mozambique

The number of displaced persons registered 48 days after the attack on Palma in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, continues to rise and approached 47,000 today, according to data from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

“On the 11th of May 2021, an estimated number of 1,093 IDPs were registered in the receiving districts bringing the total number of IDPs to 46,748 people who have been displaced from Palma.” according to today’s report from that United Nations agency.

The fleeing population is likely to be larger, as some of them may not be registered, and there will still be families hiding in the forests of the region.

Of the 46,748 displaced, 43% are children (or 20,100), 564 of whom are unaccompanied.

There are also 1,549 elderly people registered, according to IOM.

Most (82%) of the registered IDPs are being housed by host families.

Humanitarian needs still prevail near the gates of the gas project in Afungi and the new village of Quitunda, with thousands of people (the IOM estimate was at least 11,000) who do not want to return to Palma due to insecurity and who have difficulty finding a way to reach safety, according to the agency.

Ten days ago, IOM asked the Mozambican authorities for measures to facilitate humanitarian work.

“IOM calls for full humanitarian access and a reduction of bureaucratic impediments, including the issuing of visas [for UN experts], to ensure timely and efficient delivery of humanitarian aid,” as well as “greater and strategic engagement with the Government,” said IOM Mozambique Chief of Mission Laura Tomm-Bond.

Armed groups have terrorised Cabo Delgado since 2017, with some attacks claimed by the ‘jihadist’ group Islamic State, in a wave of violence that has led to more than 2,500 deaths according to the ACLED conflict registration project and 714,000 displaced people according to the Mozambican government.

An attack in Palma, near the gas project under construction, on 24 March caused dozens of deaths and injuries.

The Mozambican authorities announced they were controlling the town. Still, the attack led oil company Total to abandon the site of the project scheduled to start production in 2024. Many of Mozambique’s economic growth expectations for the next decade are anchored.