At least 120 children have been kidnapped by jihadist insurgents in northern Mozambique in recent days, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday, warning of a rise in abductions in the country’s troubled Cabo Delgado province.
The children are reportedly being used by an Islamic State–linked group known locally as al-Shabab to transport looted goods, perform forced labor, and in some cases serve as child soldiers or be forced into marriage.
Mozambique has been battling the Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado since 2017. Government forces have struggled to contain the violence, relying on support from troops sent by Rwanda, South Africa, and other regional partners.
In 2020, the insurgents carried out a wave of attacks in which they beheaded dozens of people, including children. Witnesses have said that children abducted from towns and villages have been used as fighters in subsequent attacks.
The violence has displaced more than 600,000 people and spilled into neighboring provinces, according to the United Nations. HRW said there had been a resurgence of attacks and child kidnappings in the last two months and called on Mozambique’s government to do more to find the children and prevent further abductions.
The problems in Cabo Delgado were largely overshadowed by Mozambique’s deadly and long-running post-election protests last year. Cabo Delgado has also been battered by several recent cyclones and hurt by US President Donald Trump’s cuts to foreign aid.
The secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Jan Egeland, visited Cabo Delgado this month and described the situation in northern Mozambique as a neglected crisis.
“Climate shocks, increasing violence and spiraling hunger are having a terrible impact on the population,” Egeland said.
The NRC said more than 5 million people faced critical levels of hunger and more than 900,000 people faced emergency hunger conditions.