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The number of people who fled their homes in northern Mozambique has peaked at over 112,000 in the last two months due to jihadist violence, with 60,000 being children, NGO Save the Children said Tuesday.

"More than 61,000 children have fled a new wave of violence" in the Cabo Delgado province in the last two months, "the highest number uprooted in such a short period", the children's charity said in a statement.

Fresh unrest broke out in the lawless province a few weeks ago, according to local reports and figures for displaced people from the UN migration agency IOM.

The UN migration agency IOM on Monday placed the total number of displaced people at 112,894 from December 22 to March 3.

Thousands of families have fled by bus, canoe, or on foot.

A Doctor Without Borders (MSF) psychologist, Esperanca Chinhanja, based in one of the districts of Cabo Delgado cautioned about the mental impact of the recent attacks.

"Some people experience anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, isolation, and have recurrent thoughts. Some share they lost the meaning of life and mention suicide thoughts," Chinhanja said.

MSF said it was providing individual consultations for psychological support despite limited health infrastructure.

The insurgency erupted in October 2017 when fighters -- since proclaimed to be affiliated with the Islamic State group -- attacked coastal areas in gas-rich northern Cabo Delgado, close to the Tanzanian border.

"There are repeated reports of beheadings and abductions, including multiple child victims," Save the Children said, adding that the conflict has "no immediate end in sight".

Forces from Rwanda and countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), deployed to Mozambique in July 2021 after years of jihadist attacks.

Displaced Mozambicans recall terror of new jihadist attacks

When gunmen arrived in her village for the second time, Alexandrina Calisto realised it was time to take her terrified family to join the latest wave of people fleeing Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province.

The lawless region has been prey to a jihadist insurgency for more than six years, but in recent weeks there has been a surge in violence that has sent more than 70,000 people fleeing on foot, by bus, and boat.

According to the UN migration agency IOM, those escaping attacks in six districts of the province -- a mineral-rich area already prone to catastrophic flooding and, last year, a cholera outbreak -- numbered 68,156 between February 8 and 27 alone.

UN agencies have begun to register the displaced people for emergency food supplies. But NGO leaders warn that after months of conflict and disaster, the terror of the attacks has begun to take a mental toll on the population.

On February 20, 30-year-old Calisto fled with her mother, sister, and three children after armed men entered their home.

Mozambican soldiers arriving at the scene told her it would be safe to return, but when she tried, the gunmen launched an attack.

The men were armed with "knives, rifles, pistols, and weapons to kill people", Calisto said, describing how the gang burned vehicles.

"We began to defend each other's lives, and then we had to flee," she told AFP.

Mental toll

Now the family is in Namapa, just south of Cabo Delgado, a small town that is quickly filling with thousands fleeing violence that the Maputo government has long tried to play down, including on Thursday, February 29th