Mozambique - March 2024

In early March, the UN Refugee Agency reported that over 100,000 people in Cabo Delgado Province had been displaced since February 2024, following a fresh wave of insurgent violence. The violence is part of an ongoing insurgency in Cabo Delgado, which began in 2017 and has seen militants target the state and civilians, although attacks were relatively limited in 2023. The attacks in February and early March were reported to have involved the beheading and abduction of civilians and the destruction of residential areas and community facilities, including schools, churches, and health centres. Ninety per cent of those displaced are women, people with disabilities and the elderly. According to analysts, both the attacks and the scale of the displacement highlight the weakness of security forces. 

Sources: United Nations (1), United Nations (2), Associated Press News, International Crisis Group, Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr  

In March, the Mozambican Parliament ratified an extradition treaty with Rwanda that opposition law makers, human rights defenders and Rwandan refugees fear will be used by the Rwandan government to persecute critics of Rwandan president Paul Kagame. Critics of the treaty say that it is vulnerable to abuse by Kagame’s government, which is regularly accused of targeting opponents abroad, including in Mozambique, which hosts several thousand Rwandan refugees. In 2023 NGO Human Rights Watch reported that since 2021 at least three Rwandans residing in Mozambique had died or disappeared in suspicious circumstances, that two others had survived kidnappings and several more had received death threats from embassy officials. Legislators from both Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement expressed concerns that the treaty would enable further persecution, a concern that Mozambique’s bar association described as ‘legitimate.’ The Rwandan government denies engaging in transnational repression and Mozambique’s Minister for Justice said that the agreement was intended only to target criminals.     

Sources: Jeune Afrique, The Africa Report (1), The Africa Report (2), Human Rights Watch, Agência de Informação de Moçambique