With all eyes on Maputo and Nampula, where election results have sparked protests and police violence against demonstrators, Al Shabaab insurgents in Cabo Delgado have seen this as an opportunity to intensify their attacks. Between January and July of 2024, the conflict escalated, displacing nearly five times as many people—201,000—compared to the 41,000 displaced throughout all of 2023. This is largely due to the recent withdrawal of SADC troops (SAMIM) from Mozambique, with no media coverage due to a regional press ban.
These photographs, taken in December 2024, depict the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique. Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamaa militants, an Islamic State-affiliated group known locally as al-Shabaab (though it has no links with the Islamist militants of the same name in Somalia) terrorizes the population with kidnappings and sexual violence in a systematic way.
The Rwanda Defence Forces, which maintains two military bases in the city and has deployed about 5,000 troops to support the Mozambican government since 2021, has become the main actor in the defense of the civilians.
This is nothing else than another forgotten crisis, where media access is very restricted.
