In November 2025, over 100,000 people, including around two-thirds children, were displaced in northern Mozambique due to attacks on civilians by armed non-state actors. The largest displacements were reported in the Erati and Memba districts of Nampula province, reflecting a pattern of repeated population movements triggered by ongoing violence in Cabo Delgado and Nampula. Reports indicate widespread grave violations against children, including abduction and recruitment for armed groups.
UNICEF emphasized that the rapid surge of displaced children is creating desperate conditions for families while essential services such as health, education, child protection, water, sanitation, and hygiene are struggling to meet the growing demand. The organization called for an immediate end to attacks and violations of children’s rights, highlighting the urgent humanitarian needs in the region.
This crisis occurs against a backdrop of broader vulnerability in Mozambique, where children’s rights to life, protection, development, education, and health care are already under severe threat. Approximately 4.8 million people, over half of them children, require humanitarian assistance. The combined effects of conflict, displacement, poverty, and climate shocks have exacerbated the situation: in 2025 alone, 920,000 children were affected by cyclones, nearly 400,000 had their learning disrupted due to damaged or lost classrooms, and 77% of the country’s 16.4 million children live in poverty.
Humanitarian response efforts are increasingly constrained by funding shortfalls, leaving aid services overstretched just as the cyclone season approaches. UNICEF warned that the situation is reaching a breaking point, with rapid displacement and heightened vulnerability to climate shocks threatening the safety and wellbeing of children. Additional support from government, UN agencies, humanitarian and development partners, civil society, communities, and the private sector is urgently needed to protect children, address the drivers of conflict, and build resilience to climate-related disasters in northern Mozambique.
