Mozambique: Nearly 1,600 displaced in Muidumbe over a few days

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Mozambique: Nearly 1,600 displaced in Muidumbe over a few days

12:29 CAT | 19 Nov 2025

Image: IOM

Nearly 1,600 people in Muidumbe district, Cabo Delgado province, fled their homes over a few days due to attacks by terrorist groups, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

According to the latest field report from the United Nations agency, since 13 November Muidumbe district has witnessed “a significant presence of Non-State Armed Groups”, triggering “displacements due to insecurity and fear of further attacks in surrounding areas”.

“Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) field teams recorded the arrival of 1,593 individuals (490 households) across three sites: Centro de Matambalae/Simon Nchusha (723 individuals), Centro de Miteda (676 individuals), and Centro de reassentamento de Lutete (194 individuals),” IOM reports.

“Women and children make up the majority of arrivals”, respectively 411 and 923, and “Immediate humanitarian needs include food, shelter, and non-food items (NFIs)”, it adds.

The last known attack in Muidumbe occurred last Saturday, when at least one person died and another was injured after an incursion by suspected rebels in Nampanha, 25 kilometres from the district headquarters, local sources told Lusa.

The attack took place at 22:00, when the group entered the community firing shots, causing the population to seek refuge in the forests of Muidumbe in the following days, while another part of the community moved to Mueda, a district considered safe.

Besides Nampanha, the communities of Namande, Namacule and Muambula, near the attacked village, also abandoned the area for fear of further incursions.

A survey by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), previously reported by Lusa, estimates that Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province recorded 11 violent events between 27 October and 9 November, mainly involving elements linked to the extremist Islamic State movement, causing ten civilian deaths.

According to the latest ACLED report, of the 2,251 violent events recorded since October 2017, when the armed insurgency in Cabo Delgado began, a total of 2,077 involved elements associated with Islamic State Mozambique (ISM).

These attacks have caused 6,316 deaths in just over eight years, according to the new balance sheet, including the ten victims reported in the past two weeks between October and November.

Mozambique’s Prime Minister, Benvinda Levi, acknowledged last week the “persistence of terrorist actions” as one of the country’s main challenges, but pointed to a “stabilisation” on the ground that has allowed the “gradual return” of populations to their areas of origin.

“One of the main challenges our country currently faces is the persistence of terrorist actions in some districts of Cabo Delgado, where these have been resorting, among other ‘modi operandi’, to sporadic attacks and dispersion in small groups,” she recognised, speaking in parliament to provide information to deputies.

Source: Lusa