Since October 2017, attacks by armed groups in the Northern Province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique have left more than 4,000 people dead and a further 1,000,000 internally displaced*.
With support from Rwanda Defence Forces and the Southern Africa Community Development Military Mission to Mozambique, the security situation improved and by December 2023, more than 540,958 people had returned to their communities.
However, a reliefweb report in January of this year pointed out that many of these people had been forced to return under adverse circumstances, and it identified extreme risks in the region – including forced recruitment of children into armed groups, as well as sexual violence against women and girls.