The Humanitarian Fund of Mozambique, operated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) under the umbrella of the Eastern and Southern Africa Humanitarian Fund (ESAHF), released its annual report. This document indicates that approximately 1.3 million individuals required humanitarian assistance in Mozambique throughout 2025.
The need for assistance arose in a complex scenario characterized by insurgency in Cabo Delgado province, the occurrence of cyclones, disease outbreaks, and various chronic vulnerabilities. The fund directed funding towards multifaceted assistance operations in the districts of Macomia and Quissanga, in Cabo Delgado, in addition to establishing rapid response mechanisms to deal with floods, cyclones, and cholera outbreaks in various areas of the country.
Catherine Sozi, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Mozambique, emphasized that 2025 marked the first full year of operation of this mechanism. She stressed the value of a humanitarian approach that relies on local organizations. The official stated that decentralization is not just a political desire but a consolidated operational practice.
Sozi highlighted the crucial role of national entities in the regions of Cabo Delgado, considered hard-to-reach, in northern Mozambique, an area rich in gas and which has been the target of extremist attacks since 2017.
As detailed in the report, 96% of the $2.3 million (equivalent to 1.9 million euros) allocated by the fund in 2025 was transferred directly to local and national Non-Governmental Organizations. This strategy is seen by the UN as essential to ensure faster and closer responses to affected populations.
The humanitarian situation remained extremely delicate in northern Mozambique, where instability caused by armed groups continued to generate displacement, protection risks, and demands for aid in Cabo Delgado and parts of the provinces of Nampula and Niassa.
Additionally, the intensification of violence in Cabo Delgado impacted more than 134,000 people during the year, and there were reports of about 300 kidnappings carried out by non-state armed groups since January 2025.
In parallel, cyclones Chido, Dikeledi, and Jude, which hit Mozambique between December 2024 and March 2025, caused severe damage to housing, infrastructure, and livelihoods, which aggravated humanitarian needs in several provinces in the center and north of the country.
Although focused on Mozambique, the fund is part of a regional humanitarian mechanism for East and Southern Africa. In 2025, it received contributions from four nations: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, and Estonia, totaling $3.3 million (2.8 million euros).
Catherine Sozi reiterated that the experience of the last year proved that a response based on national partners enables resources to reach 'those who need it most quickly and effectively', covering communities isolated by conflict or natural disasters.
Since 2017, the province of Cabo Delgado has faced an armed insurgency that has resulted in over 6,600 deaths and more than 1.2 million displaced persons, with sporadic incursions recorded in 2025 in the neighboring provinces of Niassa and Nampula.
Furthermore, Mozambique is classified as one of the countries most susceptible to the impacts of climate change, regularly experiencing floods, tropical cyclones, and other extreme events during the rainy season. Data from the National Institute for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction (INGD) indicates that the last rainy season resulted in 311 deaths and affected about 1.07 million people in different regions of the country.