International NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has announced a temporary suspension of humanitarian activities in Mocímboa da Praia following armed attacks on the northern Mozambican town, the Portuguese news agency reports.
The French organisation, known in English as Doctors Without Borders, made the announcement Friday. “The upsurge in violence in northern Mozambique is making it extremely difficult to deliver medical activities in a safe manner in multiple areas of Cabo Delgado Province,” the statement read. It added that attacks in Mocímboa da Praia this month forced the organisation to make the “painful decision” to temporarily suspend its work in the town and surrounding district.
“We are deeply concerned about the escalating violence and its direct impact on every aspect of people’s lives, including access to healthcare,” Victor Garcia Leoner, MSF head of operations for Mozambique, said in the statement.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are in dire need of medical and humanitarian assistance in Cabo Delgado. But insecurity is continuously cutting them off from reaching it. This results in preventable deaths and suffering.”
[See more: Displaced persons surpass 57,000 amid terrorist attacks in northern Mozambique]
Several neighbourhoods in Mocímboa da Praia suffered violent incursions this month, in which armed insurgents “have brutally killed and injured civilians, have reportedly threatened the communities and looted goods.” Armed conflict is intensifying in other parts of Cabo Delgado as well, even spilling into neighbouring provinces.
That uptick in violence has forced MSF to temporarily suspend some medical activities across locations in Cabo Delgado on several occasions, lasting days or weeks as the organisation works to balance its mission with the need to protect its staff.
The September attacks in Mocímboa da Praia “have been the most violent incidents in years,” an assessment echoed by Mozambican conflict monitor Cabo Ligado in its most recent report. It noted that the deadly 7 September attack “is just the second such incursion since September 2021, indicating a high risk of future attacks in the town.”
“MSF remains committed to standing by the people of Cabo Delgado and to resume activities in Mocímboa da Praia as soon as we obtain guarantees that our staff will be able to work in a safe manner,” said García Leonor. A deadly insurgent attack on the district capital in October 2017 marked the onset of the conflict. Last year alone, attacks killed at least 349 people in northern Mozambique, most claimed by the same Islamic State-linked group that claimed credit for the September attacks.
