The population of Palma, a gas project district in northern Mozambique, is still in an extremely precarious situation, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned today, despite the improvement in security conditions.

The UNHCR statement marked the day when, in 2021, armed groups invaded the district headquarters, in an attack "that resulted in dozens of deaths" and led tens of thousands to flee, worsening the humanitarian crisis in Cabo Delgado.

The attack also led to the suspension of work on the gas liquefaction industrial complex, Africa's largest private project, worth around 20 billion euros.

"Since then, more than 70,000 people have returned to their homes and 10,000 internally displaced people have found shelter in towns in other areas," says the UN agency.

According to UNHCR data collected in interviews with 7,425 families in Palma, "the most urgent needs are access to civil documentation and means of subsistence".

At the same time, 70% of those interviewed reported having no access to shelter, 64% said they had no food and 43% complained of having no water and sanitation services.

The UNHCR says it is working "closely with a range of actors, including the government, to provide urgent protection and assistance services to displaced people and their host communities".

Until this month, UNHCR operations in Mozambique "had been funded to the tune of only 18% out of a total of 47.4 million dollars needed to provide protection and assistance to those in need," he concluded.

The province of Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed insurgency for five years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

The insurgency has led to a military response since July 2021 with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts near the gas projects, but new waves of attacks have emerged in the south of the region and in neighboring Nampula province.

The conflict has already displaced one million people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and caused around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project. (Noticias ao Minto)