Mozambique: Around 75% of women in Cabo Delgado province illiterate – UNHCR

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Mozambique: Around 75% of women in Cabo Delgado province illiterate – UNHCR

2:58 CAT | 27 Feb 2025

File photo: Josh Estey/CARE

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated the rate of women who can neither read nor write in Cabo Delgado, a province in northern Mozambique that has been facing armed attacks since 2017, at around 75%.

The general illiteracy rate in Cabo Delgado’s population is 61% and, among women alone, it is estimated that around 75 % cannot read or write, according to a UNHCR note to which Lusa had access on Thursday.

The agency said that with the high illiteracy rate in that province, adult education programmes are a ‘promise on the horizon’.

“Thanks to the Instant School Network (INS) programme, more women are joining classes in Pemba, proving that it’s never too late to learn,” the document states.

The INS programme, launched in 2021 by UNHCR and the Vodafone Foundation, aims to provide quality digital education to asylum seekers, refugees and local pupils, and has benefited almost 9,000 7th and 12th grade pupils, 25,000 members of their families and more than 200 teachers in Nampula province alone.

The latest figures from the Mozambican government indicate that almost 40% of the country’s general population is illiterate, with an illiteracy rate of 49.4% among women and 27.2% among men.

Since October 2017, gas-rich Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed rebellion with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State, and women are among those most affected by the conflicts that have plunged the province into an unprecedented humanitarian and security crisis, according to some humanitarian organisations.

The last major attack in that northern province took place on 10 and 11 May 2024, in the district headquarters of Macomia, with around a hundred rebels sacking the town, causing several deaths and heavy fighting with the Mozambique defence and security forces and Rwandan soldiers, who are providing support in the region.

Source: Lusa