Mozambique's Insurgency Displaces 33,000 In A Week: IOM

Another 33,000 people in northern Mozambique fled their homes in the last week in response to the attacks by a jihadist group, the UN's migration agency said Tuesday

Johannesburg, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2020 ) :Another 33,000 people in northern Mozambique fled their homes in the last week in response to the attacks by a jihadist group, the UN's migration agency said Tuesday.

The gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado is under assault from a shadowy extremist group known locally as Al-Shabab.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said violence had driven more than 355,000 people from their homes since 2017.

Nearly a tenth of the exodus has happened in the past week, it said in a statement.

"Data released today shows more than 33,000 people have moved south in the last week including many forced to flee the latest security incidents," it said.

The IOM's tally of internally displaced in Cabo Delgado has quadrupled this year.

The government and a Mozambican group of monitors say more than 400,000 people have been displaced over the past three years.

The militants have stepped up attacks in the region this year, carrying out massacres and beheadings and torching villages.

A US-based NGO, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) group, has documented more than 2,000 deaths, at least 1,100 of them civilians.