Between October 2017 and October 2020, the insurgents have carried out more than 600 attacks in the central and northern districts of Cabo Delgado province, causing more than 2,000 deaths, of which more than 60% are civilians. Apart from their barbarity, the most visible face of the attacks in Cabo Delgado is the growing number of internally displaced people, which reached more than 300,000 by the end of September 2020. That is about 13% of the entire population of the province. Massive attacks against districts in Cabo Delgado province have contributed to the rapid increase in the number of displaced people in Mozambique, in the last two years, 2019 and 2020. By late 2018, in the entire country there were about 15,000 people displaced internally by the armed conflicts in Cabo Delgado and in the central region. By 19 October 2020, the total number of displaced people in the country reached 424,202, because of the intensified armed attacks in Cabo Delgado and also in the central region. Thus there has been an increase of more than 2,700% in the number of displaced people, in just two years. The Mozambican population is estimated at about 29 million, and around 424,000 (1.4%) are displaced. This corresponds to 86,562 families, of whom only 3,981 are living in the 13 accommodation centres set up by the Government and its partners. The centres are in the provinces of Cabo Delgado (six), Nampula (four) Niassa (one) and Manica (two). Zambézia, Sofala and Inhambane are other provinces that host displaced people, but have no accommodation centres for them. The displaced are living in households which host them, in most cases without the minimum of basic conditions to ensure their survival, In all just 4.6% of the displaced households are in accommodation centres. In order to understand the situation of the IDPs by the Cabo Delgado conflict, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP) has undertaken a field study on the situation of the displaced people in Cabo Delgado and Nampula provinces. This report presents the main findings and recommendations from the study.
