The number of people displaced by the ongoing insurgency in northern Mozambique and the country’s central region has risen by 2,700 percent since the end of 2018, according to a report seen by APA on Tuesday.
The report by Mozambican non-governmental organisation, Centre for Public Integrity, said there were about 15,000 people displaced internally by the armed conflicts in Cabo Delgado and in the central region at the end of 2018.
“By 19 October 2020, the total number of displaced people in the country reached 424,202, because of the intensified armed attacks in Cabo Delgado and also in the central region.
“Thus there has been an increase of more than 2,700 percent in the number of displaced people, in just two years,” the report said.
The number of internally displaced persons represents about 1.4 percent of Mozambique’s population estimated at about 29 million.
The report revealed that between October 2017 and October 2020 there have been more than 600 attacks in Cabo Delgado province, resulting in more than 2,000 deaths, of which more than 60 percent are civilians.
JN/APA