Between 2021 and 2025, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provided medical care to displaced and host communities across Mueda, Nangade and Muidumbe districts, in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, following a flare-up of violence in the conflict that’s been ongoing since 2017. As Mueda, Nangade and Muidumbe received a significant number of displaced people, MSF teams responded to medical and humanitarian needs and strengthened the local healthcare system. After four years, as healthcare services resumed functioning after the peak of the emergency, MSF has ended activities in the three districts, while warning that humanitarian needs in Cabo Delgado remain high.
In 2021, armed men linked to a group affiliated to Islamic State Mozambique launched an assault on the coastal town of Palma, around 100 kilometres northeast of Mueda. Civilian areas, hotels and residential neighbourhoods were attacked, homes were torched, and residents fled into the surrounding bush. Many people were trapped, injured or killed. The violence triggered one of the largest mass displacement of people since the conflict began, pushing thousands towards safer areas. MSF teams rapidly responded, providing emergency medical care to people in Palma and those arriving in displacement sites across Cabo Delgado.
As successive waves of violence hit Mocímboa da Praia, Macomia, Muidumbe and other districts, Mueda became a refuge. The town absorbed tens of thousands of displaced people, some arriving in critical condition after days on the move. MSF teams launched mobile clinics, delivered emergency care, provided water and sanitation support in displacement sites, and offered mental health services to people coping with the trauma of sudden, repeated loss.
Shifting response to reinforcing the healthcare system
As the security situation across Cabo Delgado improved and some displaced people began returning home, we adapted our activities, shifting from emergency response to reinforcing existing health facilities. In Mueda Rural Hospital, MSF teams provided medical staff, supplies, and technical support to deliver emergency care, maternity services, paediatric and neonatal care, HIV/TB diagnosis and treatment, and referral services. In Nangade and Muidumbe, we worked in health centres serving displaced and host communities. Our teams also trained and reinforced networks of community health workers and health promoters, strengthening community-based health surveillance and improving continuity of care and early detection of health issues.
As the situation continued to stabilise and health facilities resumed functioning, from 2024 MSF began a phased handover to the Ministry of Health and local partners. Efforts focused on building clinical and pharmacy capacity among health staff. They were trained in emergency preparedness and surveillance systems, providing care for chronic diseases and mental health, and referrals for people who are victims of gender-based violence. We also donated stocks of essential medical supplies to support ongoing healthcare services.
However, late 2025 brought a stark reminder that the conflict remains volatile. New attacks by the armed group active in northern Mozambique, and clashes with local and regional forces, triggered fresh displacement of people across the region. More than 90,000 people fled between late September and the end of the year, with around 23,000 arriving in Mueda district alone by October. Many people had already been displaced multiple times, and some found themselves returning to the very camps they once left behind.
We scaled up our response once again. This new shift brought MSF teams to provide medical services in Eduardo Mondlane, Nandimba and Lianda camps, while extending outreach to communities such as Nanili, at the border with Mocímboa da Praia district. We provided strengthened infection prevention and control measures and facilitated referrals for people requiring urgent care. Our teams also provided expanded mental health services to address people’s cumulative psychological toll of cyclical displacement and prolonged insecurity.
The latest crisis reveals yet again the fragility of health services in northern Mozambique and the continued challenges people face in accessing care. While MSF’s activities in Mueda have ended, we recognise that humanitarian needs remain high across Cabo Delgado. Access to healthcare continues to be limited for both displaced people and host communities, and the risk of sudden displacement persists wherever violence flares.
MSF remains committed to responding to evolving needs and to providing medical and humanitarian assistance to people across Mozambique.
MSF Mueda activities in figures:
- 258,000 outpatient consultations
- 62,083 people treated for malaria
- 56,334 people treated for respiratory infections
- 11,145 people treated for diarrhoeal diseases
- 20,369 inpatient consultations
- 32,933 medical referrals
- 12,268 assisted deliveries
- 7,675 sexual and reproductive health consultations
- 7,436 individual mental health consultations
- 208,300 attendances in group mental health activities
MSF continues to provide vital healthcare services to host communities and people coping with violence and displacement in northern Mozambique. In Cabo Delgado, MSF runs projects in Mocímboa da Praia, Macomia, and Palma. We provide general outpatient consultations, emergency care, maternity and paediatric services, treatment for HIV and tuberculosis, and mental health and psychosocial support. In Nampula, we are running an emergency intervention in Érati district and supporting the Ministry of Health in handling a cholera outbreak in Nacala.
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