Lost and Afraid in Mozambique’s Growing Displacement Crisis

On a cloudy day in northern Mozambique, Nampula Province, I met Faida, a young girl separated from her family after non-state armed groups attacked her village in Memba District. She fled to a safe site in Eráti District, which is now hosting more than 50,000 displaced people, according to a recent update from Provincial Governor Eduardo Mariamo.

No older than twelve, her clothes were covered in the grime of a long, desperate journey. She was sitting with black plastic with cooked beans given by a kind stranger. She tells me she walked for three days, covering nearly 30 kilometres alone. The ordeal of separation is written across her terrified face.

“When we heard about the assaults and the burning houses,” she whispers, her eyes wide with a terrible memory.

“We were all so scared. We just started running in different directions and got split up. I've been relying on kind people for food along the way. It's not much, but it helps. Even now I'm eating these beans someone gave me here. But I'm so very scared. I just need my family”, she explained.

Her plea, simple yet profound, shows the deep vulnerability of unaccompanied and separated children arriving in Nampula displacement sites. For Faida and others like her, the absence of a familiar face leaves them exposed to exploitation, illness, and the quiet trauma of surviving violence only to find themselves alone in an overcrowded camp. Her future, like her journey, is uncertain. It is dependent on strangers until protection and family tracing systems can reach her.

By António Massipa, Communications and Advocacy Coordinator