Conditions Worsen for Cabo Delgado IDPs Amid Waves of Terror Attacks

ADF STAFF

More than 542,000 internally displaced people (IDP) in northern Mozambique’s conflict-torn Cabo Delgado province face dire humanitarian conditions amid an insurgency that has raged since 2017.

As the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) reported, many IDPs there have limited access to food, shelter, water, sanitation, health and education. They also struggle to find work and are at greater risk of disease outbreaks and gender-based violence. About 55% of them are hosted by local populations while the rest live in 190 displacement sites.

In Pemba, home to about 132,000 IDPs, the number of unemployed youths and beggars is growing. Women and girls are involved in sex work, often at displacement camps.

The chief of one IDP center told researchers with Mozambique’s Center for Public Integrity about a 16-year-old displaced girl who turned to prostitution so she could afford basic necessities.

“She would get involved with several men to be able to buy soap,” the chief said.

Hardships faced by IDPs make them vulnerable to radicalization by violent extremist organizations, who exploit their grievances and marginalization with offers of security and sustenance, according to the ISS.

Because Mozambique’s government does not yet have a plan to support IDPs, the United Nations and other international humanitarian agencies provide for all of their essential goods and services.

The ISS contends that Mozambican authorities would be wise to learn how other African nations have effectively handled large numbers of IDPs and underemployed young people.

The northern Ugandan town of Koboko, for example, hosts thousands of refugees from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.

In May, Koboko Mayor Wilson Sanya told delegates at the Strong Cities Network workshop in Tanzania how the town regarded refugees as a workforce to help develop the city and how they were taught English to help them get local jobs.

Pemba has some isolated vocational training programs for young people, but they don’t ensure that the most vulnerable people are selected or that graduates meet the needs of local employers, according to the ISS.

A program run by local government and funded by TotalEnergies has trained thousands of young people from Cabo Delgado in electricity, construction, locksmithing and mechanics, but the training is not based on market needs or tied to development and employment plans, so thousands of graduates remain jobless.

At the Strong Cities Network workshop, Mahmoud Noor, founder of the Swahilipot Hub Foundation, which supports Mombasa, Kenya, explained that the foundation’s youth training program works with businesses to determine their needs, then trains young people to meet them.

Cabo Delgado’s IDPs also face a critical reduction in humanitarian aid, a situation made worse by terrorists.

In May, al-Shabaab fighters, some as young as 13, raided Macomia, home of Cabo Delgado’s third-largest IDP population. They stole food from various shops and warehouses of humanitarian groups and hauled it away in 15 vehicles.

Witness Abu Rachide told Human Rights Watch that the fighters told residents not to fear as they had “come only for the food.”

“I and my sister decided to flee anyway because we didn’t want to take risks, but many people stayed behind,” Rachide said. No casualties were reported, but several humanitarian workers were kidnapped.

The World Food Program (WFP) and Doctors Without Borders, which has cooperated with Mozambican communities since 1984, suspended their work in Macomia after the attack.

IDPs in Cabo Delgado already were facing reduced support from the WFP before the attack on Macomia. During the January to February 2024 food assistance cycle, the WFP helped about 460,000 people in the province, down from more than 750,000 in the November to December 2023 cycle, the ISS reported.

By May, the number had shrunk to 136,371. Current forecasts for 2024 show that the WFP is facing a shortfall of 76% for its Mozambique efforts.

ISS researchersBorges Nhamirre and Isel Ras argued that attacks such as the one on Macomia underscore Mozambique’s need for a properly studied and resourced central government plan to address IDP concerns.

“This responsibility cannot be handed over to humanitarian organizations whose operations could be abruptly interrupted by threats of violence, attacks or lack of funding,” they wrote. “Addressing the needs of IDPs requires political commitment and coordinated action to ensure integration, conflict reduction and resilience against violent extremism.”