Northern Mozambique Faces Extended Humanitarian Crisis, UN Warns  

GENEVA - U.N. agencies warn northern Mozambique is facing a long-lasting humanitarian and protection crisis as conflict, hunger and disease grip hundreds of thousands of people in the region. People are still fleeing in droves from the impact of the violence that erupted in northern Mozambique’s coastal town of Palma. Many of the thousands of people who have fled to Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado, tell stories of the horrific attacks by Islamist militants, who reportedly killed dozens of people and committed other atrocities. 

Speaking on a video link from Pemba, director of emergencies for the U.N. children’s fund Manuel Fontaine says people relate how they have had to flee in the middle of the night. They speak in sorrow of families being separated while running for their lives.  “I heard about this young woman who was pregnant and… her husband was just killed in front of her. And these are constant stories. Stories of people being kidnapped and stories of gender-based violence, horrific stories of lots of people walking for days and days, kids arriving with their feet swollen and injured and having to be taken care of,” he said. UNICEF says malnutrition rates among displaced children in Cabo Delgado are alarmingly high, with at least 33,000 in need of lifesaving specialized nutritional feeding. It says cholera and COVID-19 are of growing concern.