Quirimbas Archipelago and Ibo Island, a Heritage Coast Caught in the Cabo Delgado War

North of Pemba, a chain of about 32 coral islands runs up the coast of Cabo Delgado towards the Tanzanian border. These are the Quirimbas: mangrove channels, reefs, sandbanks and old trading towns, settled by Swahili merchants for centuries before the Portuguese arrived. In better times they were the reason most tourists came to Pemba at all. Since 2017 they have also been a front line.

The national park and the reefs

In 2002 Mozambique created Quirimbas National Park, about 7,500 square kilometres of land and sea that take in the 11 most southerly islands, coastal forest, mangroves and the inland savannah towards the inselbergs of the interior. Its reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves shelter turtles, dugongs and large fish populations, and humpback whales pass offshore in the southern winter. The archipelago has been on UNESCO's tentative list for World Heritage status since 2008.

Image: pxef.com

The park was meant to combine conservation with the fishing and farming communities who live inside it. That balance was hard to keep before the war. It has been harder since.

Ibo, the old capital

The most important of the islands historically is Ibo. It was a Portuguese trading post from the 16th century and, for a long time, the administrative centre of the region, before the Niassa Company moved its seat to Porto Amélia, today's Pemba (the city's history). Ibo grew rich on trade in ivory and, in the 18th and 19th centuries, on slaves shipped to the Indian Ocean islands and beyond.

What survives is a small colonial town of crumbling merchants' houses, churches and the star-shaped Fort of São João Baptista, built at the end of the 18th century. Silversmiths still work in the fort, making jewellery by hand from melted coins, a craft passed down on the island for generations. Before the war, Ibo's restored lodges and its slow, half-ruined streets drew a small, steady stream of travellers.

The war reaches the islands

The insurgency in Cabo Delgado (explained here) was a mainland war at first, but the fighters used boats from early on, and the islands, close to the coast and lightly defended, became targets. In 2020 they raided Vamizi, a resort island north of the park. In March 2024 they attacked Quirimba island in the early morning of the 3rd, and two days later turned on Ibo itself, seizing the town after heavy fighting. Residents said they had been left to defend themselves. Survivors fled by boat to other islands and to Pemba.

The insurgents did not hold the islands, but the damage to confidence was done. As of 2026 the group still operates at sea off Matemo and along the coast between Macomia and Mocímboa da Praia, according to the conflict monitor ACLED. Many of the island lodges that once filled with honeymooners and divers have closed or work far below capacity.

Going now

The British government advises against all travel to Cabo Delgado outside the Pemba and Afungi areas and Palma town, which includes the Quirimbas (is Pemba safe). Anyone going for work, research or aid should do so with local security advice and current information, and travel by air or with an established operator rather than by local boat (getting to Pemba).

The case for the Quirimbas hasn't changed: a living Swahili and Portuguese heritage, and one of the richest marine environments on the East African coast. What it needs first is peace on the mainland opposite.