‘Immense river of people’ flees Islamist insurgency in Mozambique, Vatican newspaper reports

August 26, 2025

A day after Pope Leo XIV appealed for prayer for the people of Cabo Delgado Province in Mozambique, the Vatican newspaper reported on the “immense river of people seeking safety from shootings, attacks, and kidnappings” associated with the Islamist insurgency there.

Bishop Osório Citora Afonso, IMC, the secretary general of the Mozambican Episcopal Conference, told L’Osservatore Romano that “the Pope’s words made us feel loved by the entire universal Church. Knowing that our dramatic situation is in his heart has filled the entire nation with joy.”

Bishop Afonso spoke of “many displaced people: after the latest episodes of violence, it is estimated that at least 8,000 people have been displaced”—a figure that adds to the “already staggering figures released a few days ago by Doctors Without Borders,” the newspaper reported.

Persons fleeing the insurgency “really need everything,” the prelate said, as he spoke of the efforts of the government, the bishops, and Jesuit missionaries to minister to them. “After abandoning their homes and lands, they no longer own anything. They’ve been walking on foot for days and days, and now they’re exhausted.”

 

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Further information:

• Non chiudere gli occhi sul dolore di un popolo (L'Osservatore Romano, 8/25/25)
• Papal prayer for peace in Mozambique, Ukraine (CWN, 8/25/25)
• Insurgency in Cabo Delgado (Wikipedia)
• Violence in Cabo Delgado sparks new wave of mass displacement as needs surge (Doctors Without Borders, 8/21/25)