Mozambique - Every Casualty Counts

Following several years of armed struggle, in 1975 Mozambique gained independence from Portugal. A Marxist-Leninist government took power in a one-party system which led to civil war between 1977 – 1992. Cuba, the USSR, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa all intervened in the conflict, which is believed to have caused more than one million deaths from fighting and famine. A peace deal was reached in 1992 and Mozambique’s first multi-party elections were held in 1994, although the same party has remained in power for over 50 years.

In 2017 an armed Islamist insurgency broke out in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique. By 2019, the insurgent group had developed into a franchise of Islamic State. Both the insurgents and the Mozambique military forces have been responsible for serious abuses of civilians, including massacres. In March 2021, an IS attack on the town of Palma and its surrounding villages resulted in the deaths of more than 740 civilians in a single week, with hundreds more unaccounted for.

Since 2021, nine African states have deployed military forces to help the Mozambique government forces. An independen self-defense militia, called the Naparama, also began fighting IS in late 2022. Despite a general decline in fatalities since 2021, in 2024 the number of deaths doubled compared to the previous year.

Almost 300 people are believed to have been killed by government forces responding to popular protests against the national election results, were alleged to be fraudulent.

What we’re doing

Every Casualty Counts works with organistations documenting casualties in Mozambique to ensure victims of the conflict are not forgotten.

Our mission is to uphold the right to life and dignity by ensuring that no victim remains invisible, and that data serves as a tool for truth, justice, and lasting peace.
Centro para Democracia e Direitos Humanos, Mozambique

Our input to human rights council 62

14 July 2026

The Human Rights Council closed its 62nd session on 8 July. We shared vital input for Yemen and DR Congo

We are hiring

4 July 2026

We are excited to announce two vacancies on the ECC team: Executive Director and Advocacy Director.

ECC joined the 2026 civil society statement on the protection of civilians

19 June 2026

In May 2026, Every Casualty Counts joined nineteen other organisations in a joint civil society statement issued ahead of the United Nations Security Council’s annual open debate on the protection
Read more…

Casualty recording in Mozambique

International humanitarian aid agencies including OCHA, UNHCR and UNICEF, gather data on fatalities relating to the armed conflict in northern Mozambique since 2017. However, these initiatives are not intended to comprehensively record and memorialise all victims – rather, they provide information on violence trends to support strategic planning and advocacy.

There is no known national register of conflict fatalities, and no register of victims for compensation purposes. Memorialisation initiatives related to the civil war prior to 1992 focus on broad historical narratives rather than individual recognition.

A small number of civil society organisations in Mozambique are attempting to document fatalities caused by state repression and the islamist insurgency in the north of the country. Their work is limited by security considerations, resource contraints, and political interference. Despite these obstacles, they continue to provide a valuable source of information on casualties.

Limitations and obstacles

The ongoing security crisis in northern Mozambique means that there is only limited access for independent, external investigators. This significantly reduces the availability of reliable information on casualties. Simiarly, recording of fatality data by aid agencies is subject to gaps when funding shortages or security crises force the agency to suspend or relocate its services, either permanently or temporarily. Dramatic cuts to international aid funding since early 2025 have had a major impact in this regard.

Identification of victims is hampered due to the massive levels of population displacement caused by the conflict. Many survivors and witnesses of attacks have fled the most violent regions and cannot be traced, or are scared to speak out. When documented, personal details of victims are rarely made public due to the ongoing risk of reprisals against witnesses.

Civil documentation, such as ID cards and birth certificates, are easily lost in the process of displacement, or when homes are looted and burnt by attackers. Attacks on healthcare infrastructure such as hospitals also reduces the availability of reliable documentation on births and deaths, which is an important resource for verifying casualties.

Information on individual casualties

Sources of information about people killed in armed conflict and violence in Mozambique:

Centro para Democracia e Direitos Humanos (CDD)

CDD is an independent non-governmental organisation established in Mozambique in 2018. It documents human rights violations, including killings, and uses its resarch for advocacy and accountability purposes. CDD operates across all regions of the country, gathering and verifying firsthand information from a variety of primary sources. CDD has documented more than 400 individual casualties.

Image: Xai Xai, Mozambique by Jason and Molly Kehrer, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.