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Since October 2017, Cabo Delgado Province has been an arena of armed conflict, translating into destruction and looting, abductions and killings of civilian populations. The conflict intensified throughout 2020, with attacks on district headquarters villages, leading to the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of individuals. The history of armed conflicts in Mozambique shows that they have had enormous impacts on the civilian population, placed between two opposing groups: rebel forces and government forces. Aware of their respective importance in a guerrilla war (for the possibility of logistical support, camouflage, recruitment, or the provision of information), the warring parties have always related to the civilian population on the basis of mistrust, imposing their domination by force and persuasion, and seeking to interfere in their habitat (in clusters or scattered in the bush). Being physically more fragile, target for sexual predation by armed young men, and traditionally a food producer, women were a recurrent target, remaining in a particularly vulnerable position. In the current armed conflict in northeast Cabo Delgado, there have been numerous reports of abduction of hundreds of young women, and there is much doubt about their whereabouts. However, viewing women only as passive victims of the conflict does not capture the complexity of the situation. Voluntarily or forcibly, by conviction or without choice, the literature shows that women play an active role in armed conflicts, as observers and providers of military information, in providing logistical support, as vigilantes, and even as soldiers. This active involvement of women is all the more evident the larger the social support base of the insurgent groups. This study aims to portray the impact of the armed conflict on women during the armed conflict in northern Cabo Delgado, analyzing not only the wide range of violence committed against them, but also the forms of collaboration (more or less voluntary) with rebel groups and their organizational dynamics.

ISBN: 978-2-490093-28-1