Malnutrition Rising in Mozambique Amid Extremist Insurgency

JOHANNESBURG - Mozambique's humanitarian crisis from the extremist insurgency in the country's north is rapidly spiraling, with more than 950,000 people in urgent need of food aid, the U.N. World Food Program said Thursday.

An estimated 50,000 people fled their homes amid the rebels' five-day siege of Palma earlier this month, swelling the numbers of displaced and hungry. "People have scattered in many different directions since the recent attacks in Palma. Survivors are traumatized. They've had to flee, leaving behind all their belongings, and families have been separated," said Antonella Daprile, WFP's country director in Mozambique, who visited Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado province, where many of the displaced have sought safety. "We met a young mother who fled the violence with her two daughters. They walked for three days without food or water and have no idea whether the rest of their family survived," Daprile said.