• Total number of organized violence events: 871

• Total number of reported fatalities from organized violence: 2,838

• Total number of reported fatalities from civilian targeting: 1,406

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Situation Summary

In Cabo Delgado, last week began with an alarming manifestation of the psychological trauma endured by hundreds of thousands of conflict-affected people in the province. In Nanjua, Metuge district, on the night of 2 May, a woman reported seeing insurgents as she worked in her field. The report caused widespread panic in the area, causing many displaced people to flee their resettlement centers. A thorough investigation by authorities, however, found no evidence of insurgent presence. The authorities alleged that the false report was a response to irregular aid delivery in the area.

For people still caught in the conflict zone, however, the insurgent threat is still very real. Over 40 people were captured by insurgents on Ilha Makaloe, Macomia district, on 3 May as they tried to reach Pemba by sea. Details on the attack are in this week’s Incident Focus.

On 7 May, eight insurgents attempted a raid on Ngalonga, in southeastern Nangade district. Local militia interdicted the insurgents, killing three of them. The militia members were armed with assault rifles and at least one rocket propelled grenade. As the insurgents attempted to retreat toward Mocimboa da Praia district, the militia members pursued them and launched their own ambush. At least two more insurgents were killed in the ambush.

The same day, in Macomia town, three girls were reported missing from the town’s Napulubo and Nanga B neighborhoods. The girls, at least one of whom was displaced from the eastern part of Macomia district, did not return home after going to the well to gather water. The following day, 8 May, five other girls were pursued by an unknown person as they returned from the well, but all returned home safe. The disappearances follow community meetings about the safety of girls in the town in the wake of previous apparent kidnappings. Around 25 April, six girls went missing in similar circumstances during trips to the well.

A Mozambican man who had been working in Palma as a private security guard for the Amarula Palma Hotel was released to his family in Pemba last week after over a month in government custody. The man was arrested by government forces on 28 March while fleeing the insurgent attack on Palma. While in custody, he was tortured by authorities in an attempt to force him to confess that he was a member of the insurgency. He was released following intervention from his family after photos of him in custody leaked onto social media. The man’s case highlights both the arbitrariness and the brutality of the Mozambican state’s response to the insurgency. There is no way to know how many others were arrested in a similar fashion but lack the family connections to secure their release.

New information came to light last week about insurgent capabilities in their main areas of operation. On 6 May, a group of 18 people displaced from Palma arrived in Nangade after escaping insurgent captivity. One recounted an extensive network of stolen cars and motorbikes that form the insurgent logistical train and a road running from an insurgent base in the southeastern corner of Mocimboa da Praia district all the way north to Palma district. It is not clear if this indicates insurgents are using the existing R762 and R775 roads that follow that route or if they have cut a new path in the area.

Incident Focus: Perilous Sea Journey to Pemba

Efforts to escape Quitunda in Palma district have only become more dangerous as insurgents have begun to pick up on the most popular routes. As more people are attempting to reach Pemba via private boat, insurgents are targeting them when they reach insurgent-controlled areas of the coast. 

People trying to make their way from Palma south to Pemba by sea were waylaid by insurgents on 3 May as they stopped to rest on Ilha Makaloe, just off the coast of Macomia district near Pangane. According to those who later escaped, insurgent lookouts in Mocimboa da Praia district saw the civilian ships heading south and dispatched fighters to Ilha Makaloe. Once there, the insurgents posed as displaced people and infiltrated the traveling group. After another boat of insurgents arrived, the initial group revealed themselves and took the displaced people captive.

Insurgents transported the kidnapped people back to Pangane on the mainland, where some were able to escape after being sent into the bush to gather food. The escapees traveled west on foot some 50 kilometers to reach Macomia town. The total numbers of those kidnapped and those escaped are not clear, but 40 escapees finally reached Pemba via Macomia by 7 May.

It is clear, however, that the attacks off the Macomia coast are not one-offs. One Voice of America report said that passengers on 10 civilian boats have been kidnapped in this way -- four boats carrying displaced people from Palma and another six local fishing boats. Another, from Pinnacle News, said that insurgents had sunk two boats carrying displaced people on 3 May at “Ilha Mucongwe” (which may be Ilha Makaloe), killing seven civilians and injuring several more. 

As of 10 May, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM), nearly 4,800 people left Palma and arrived in either Ibo or Pemba districts via the sea, over double the number who had made that trip between 24 March and 1 May. Maritime security off the Macomia coast has become a vital human security concern. The government’s ban on civilian travel in the area is not sufficient to protect people given the necessity of escaping hunger and insecurity in the areas surrounding Palma town.

Government Response

In total, as of 10 May, IOM counted 45,615 displaced people from Palma who had arrived elsewhere in Cabo Delgado and Nampula since the 24 March attack, up from 33,238 at the start of May. Estimates put the number remaining in the resettlement village of Quitunda at between 11,000 and 20,000. International aid agencies are still unable to reach them. The IOM head of mission in Mozambique, Laura Tomm-Bonde, cited “bureaucratic impediments” on the part of the Mozambican government for the inability to deliver aid to Quitunda and other inaccessible areas, likely referring to the reported impasse between the government and aid groups over who will distribute aid once it arrives. Security concerns also pose a major challenge for aid distribution in the area.

People who have fled north to the Tanzanian border are also not faring well. Many have reached Ilha Suavo in the Rovuma river delta, expecting to be picked up by Tanzanian boats that will help them complete their crossing into Tanzania. The boats are coming less frequently than expected, however, leaving displaced Mozambicans stranded on the island and forced to contemplate other, less safe means to cross.

Power outages also continue across northern Cabo Delgado, as the government has still not managed to secure the Awasse electrical substation for long enough to repair the damage done to it by insurgents. 25,000 customers across Muidumbe, Mueda, Nangade, Palma, and Mocimboa da Praia districts have been without access to electricity since September 2020. The director of Mozambique’s national electric utility said there is no estimate for when service will resume.

Further south, teachers are not among the civilians who have returned to western Macomia district in recent months. Teachers who had fled the district were ordered back in March in order to begin the new school year, but few have complied. Even in Macomia town, where security is strongest, teacher shortages are making education difficult. In one primary school in Macomia town, the student-teacher ratio is currently 150-1. 

International aid agencies also continue to face challenges. In Chiure town, World Food Program aid distribution has been irregular and plagued with concerns over the list of who is to receive food aid. As a result, in some neighborhoods with displaced populations, there have been no distributions in three months. In April, distributions only took place in three of Chiure’s 15 neighborhoods, all of which host displaced civilians. The distribution problems have even extended outside of Cabo Delgado. Allegations of corruption in the disbursement of food aid for people displaced from Cabo Delgado emerged in Nampula province last week. In a story closely reminiscent of complaints from Cabo Delgado,  displaced people in Nacala-Porto said that local officials are diverting aid to their personal networks.

Agencies also face bigger picture funding problems. A UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson said last week in an interview that UNHCR’s operations in Cabo Delgado remain only 20% funded for 2021. The High Commissioner’s initial appeal was for $24.5 million, meaning that donor countries have managed to put together less than $5 million as Cabo Delgado’s displacement crisis grows worse. The United States announced on 7 May that it would be donating $700,000 to UNHCR’s efforts in Mozambique, bringing total funding levels to a still-paltry 23% of total funding needed.

Funding issues are not limited to state-funded agencies, however. The Catholic aid agency Caritas suspended food aid distributions in Pemba on 5 May due to lack of resources. The head of Caritas in Pemba promised to resume distributions as soon as the organization could acquire more food.

On the international front, Portugal and Mozambique signed a five year agreement to keep 80 Portuguese soldiers in the country to train Mozambican troops, facilitate intelligence sharing, and conduct drone surveillance to support the government’s counterinsurgency effort. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the EU hopes to send an additional military training mission to Mozambique before the end of 2021. Borrell’s comments followed a meeting of EU defense ministers on 6 May, during which assistance to Mozambique was discussed but nothing was agreed upon. Borrell said that, if deployed, the EU contingent would likely be made up largely of Portuguese troops supporting those already in Mozambique, and would be involved in training and force protection missions.

The US, for its part, completed a Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) mission in Mozambique last week, during which US Green Berets trained Mozambican marines (fuzileiros). The US embassy in Maputo announced that there will be another JCET in July 2021. The July training will make three US JCETs in Mozambique in the last three years, including the one just completed and one in 2019 that the embassy has not acknowledged publicly.

Updated: 25 May 2021.

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