The capital of Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province is receiving up to 1,000 people per day who are running away from an armed insurgency in parts of the region, a non-governmental organisation revealed on Friday.
The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) reported that an average of 1,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been landing per day at the Paquitequete beach in Pemba via boats since October 17.
CDD is quoted as saying those arriving in Pemba are part of a new wave of IDPs, which has occurred periodically since the conflict began three years ago.
It said they are residents “who lived mainly from subsistence farming on their land, who had to abandon and flee by boat from the northern part of the region, attacked by armed rebels.”
They are being assisted by various agencies, including the World Food Programme, Mozambique Red Cross and the National Institute for Disaster Management.
Cabo Delgado province has experienced a surge in armed attacks by militants suspected to be linked to the terrorist organisation, Islamic State.
The insurgency has displaced more than 300,000 people from hotspots in the province, with about 2,000 others killed.
JN/APA