About 400,000 people have fled militant attacks in northern Mozambique, the UN refugee agency reported, alerting that the crisis could rapidly spread beyond the country's borders if regional neighbors did not help tackle the insurgency.
Mozambique's northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, home to gas developments worth some USD 60 billion, is grappling with an insurgency connected to Islamic State that has gathered pace this year, with insurgents regularly taking on the army and seizing entire towns.
Valentin Tapsoba, the southern African head of the U.N High Commission for Refugees, said families who were rebuilding their lives after the destruction caused by Cyclone Kenneth in 2019 have had to flee from militant attacks.
Zimbabwe presidential spokesman George Charamba said leaders from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana and Tanzania were set to meet in Maputo on Monday over the insurgency. Tapsoba said 424,000 people have fled the insurgency to Niassa, Nampula and Pempa and that the number could rise. He said Mozambican authorities put the figure at 570,000.
On Friday the Mozambican government, together with UN agencies and other local nongovernmental groups, will launch an international appeal for funding to help those fleeing Cabo Delgado, Tapsoba said. UNHCR had raised a third of the $19.2 million it requires for shelter, water and sanitation and food next year, said Tapsola.
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