At least 6,000 villagers have fled their homes in Mozambique [7]'s western Tete province amid renewed fighting between the government and RENAMO guerillas. Most are now in refugee camps across the border in Malawi [8], where the UN High Commissioner for Refugees [9] is calling on the government to grant them asylum. Violence has been escalating since mid-December, and on Feb. 8 RENAMO formally announced a return to war, accusing the government of murdering and kidnapping their leaders. The Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO [10]), which waged a brutal insurgency in the 1980s, formally re-organized as a political party at the end of the Mozambican Civil War in 1991. However, it returned to arms in 2013, charging the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO [11]) with controlling elections and running a one-party state. There have been repeated ceasefires since then, but the current fighting is the most serious since the end of the civil war. (Times Live [12], South Africa, UNHCR [13], Malawi24 [14], Feb. 18; MSF [15], South Africa Institute of International Affairs [16] via AllAfrica [17], Mozambique News Agency via AllAfrica [18], Feb. 16; Mozambique News Reports & Clippings via AllAfrica [19], Feb. 14)
The fighting comes amid a second consecutive year that has seen failed rainy seasons in Mozambique, exacerbated by this year's severe El Niño [20] phenomenon—leading to lost harvests and widespread hunger. (The Guardian [21], Feb. 17) Malawi, where the displaced have taken refuge, is also suffering food shortages due to drought. (IRIN [22], Feb. 17)
Much of East Africa has been similarly impacted [23].
