Nearly 22,000 people fled their homes in northern Mozambique in a single week last month amid renewed fighting across Cabo Delgado, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday (October 7). The latest surge in displacement, in late September, marks a sharp escalation in a conflict now in its eighth year, with over 100,000 people uprooted since January.

The region, home to multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, has repeatedly been targeted by militants. On September 22, insurgents believed to be linked with the Islamic State struck a Cabo Delgado town, killing and beheading civilians, sparking a fresh wave of fear-driven flight.

The violence, which began in 2017 with insurgent attacks by a group locally known as al-Shabaab — unrelated to the Somali Islamist faction — has evolved into a multi-layered crisis compounded by successive cyclones, flooding and drought that have devastated livelihoods.

For the first time since hostilities began, all 17 districts of Cabo Delgado have been directly affected. More than 1.3mn people have been displaced overall, many of them multiple times. “Families are reaching their limit,” said Xavier Créach, UNHCR’s representative in Mozambique. “Some who once hosted the displaced are now fleeing themselves.”

Civilians continue to face abductions, killings and sexual violence, while children risk forced recruitment by armed groups. Women and girls remain particularly exposed when collecting water or firewood, UNHCR said, and many require urgent psychosocial care.

The UN reports more than 500 violent incidents in the province through August — already exceeding the 2022 peak — involving raids, abductions and destruction of homes and infrastructure. The violence has crippled the region’s health system: around 60% of facilities in the hardest-hit districts are non-functional, the WHO-led response team said.

The attacks deepen concern about Mozambique’s $20bn LNG sector, anchored by French major TotalEnergies’ project in Cabo Delgado. Operations have been suspended under force majeure since 2021 following earlier assaults in Palma. But early in October, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo said conditions were met to lift force majeure on the LNG project.

Meanwhile, in Mocímboa da Praia, according to the UN, the only hospital is operating with less than 10% of its staff, mostly volunteers struggling to maintain emergency and maternity services. Health workers warn that malaria and cholera outbreaks are likely to rise with the onset of the rainy season.

The health-sector response plan for northern Mozambique was only 11% funded as of September 2025, leaving essential drug stocks at critical levels. UNHCR said its Mozambique operations have received just $66mn of the $352mn required for 2025, leaving agencies overstretched as humanitarian needs increase.