2021 Mozambique Humanitarian Response Plan (Abridged Version)

Crisis Overview

The crisis in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, has rapidly escalated as a result of conflict, insecurity and violence, leaving an estimated 1.3 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance and protection in 2021. Attacks by non-state armed groups expanded geographically and increased in intensity in 2020, significantly heightening protection risks, especially for women and girls, people with disabilities, older persons and people living with HIV/AIDS. Reports of violations against civilians, including killings, beheadings and kidnappings, increased in 2020. The number of people displaced by the crisis more than quadrupled from March (over 110,400) to November 2020 (nearly 530,000), with children accounting for an estimated 45 per cent of people displaced. More than 90 per cent of displaced people are staying with family and friends in host communities’ whose already meagre resources are being strained by the growing influxes: in Ibo district, there are now more IDPs than host community members; in Pemba city, more than 100,000 displaced people have arrived over the past year, on top of the original population of around 224,000 people. Meanwhile, 10 per cent of displaced people are staying in collective sites which are overcrowded, lack privacy, and have limited access to safe shelter, water and sanitation. This is contributing to protection risks, including gender-based violence, rising numbers of child and teen pregnancies, and increased exposure to exploitation and negative coping mechanisms, including transactional sex.