According to the authorities, a number of terrorist strikes in the northern Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique have left over 70 children missing.
In recent weeks, thousands of them left to a neighboring province, severing their ties to their families.
There are worries that some of them might have been taken hostage by militants associated with the Islamic State (IS) organization.
Since 2017, the military has been assisted by regional forces in combating an Islamist militant insurgency.
However, the violence has recently increased, and 80,000 people have reportedly been displaced since January, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a medical charity.
Over the past few weeks, many people have fled from the Chiùre district of Cabo Delgado to the province of Nampula, including the children.
For individuals who have been displaced over the past few years, Chiùre, which lies south of Cabo Delgado, has served as a comparatively safe haven; reports of violence have mostly come from the province’s north.
President Filipe Nyusi declared last week that the jihadists had specifically targeted Chiùre in order to kidnap children.
According to the private publication Expresso da Tarde, there are worries that the militants may have put them in training camps.
The number of civilian casualties from the recent fighting in Chiùre, where the army claims that quiet has returned, is unknown.
According to officials, the children got lost in the chaos as others ran away; 72 of them are still missing, though some have since been located.
As to a UN study, children make up over 60% of those displaced due to the recent wave of jihadist assaults, and 129 schools have been closed.
According to Save the Children, this is the largest number of children to be uprooted in such a short amount of time.
“There are several accounts of kidnappings and beheadings, with several of the victims being children. More than half of the 540,000 displaced individuals as a result of the fighting are youngsters,” according to the organization.
Now in its seventh year, the insurgency in the gas-rich region of Cabo Delgado was started by the local al-Shabab group, which has ties to the IS.
Local complaints have been exacerbated by high rates of poverty and conflicts over access to jobs and land.
