At the provincial hospital in Pemba, a gunshot wounded one-year-old is waiting for surgery.
He has been shot in the leg, and the bullet remains.
The boy is one of the victims of this weekend's brutal jihadist attack in the port city of Palma, when dozens of people were murdered and thousands of residents were forced to flee.
Some have managed to get to the provincial capital Pemba by boat, plane or on foot.
The UN Children's Fund Unicef has received at least seven unaccompanied children, some injured, who have been evacuated from the area.
Several of them have spent several days hidden in the bushes around Palma.
UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado testified about "terrible scenes".
- An injured girl, maybe five years old, had to be carried off the plane, suffering from pain, she says to the news agency AFP.
Reckless carnage
The attack last week is the latest in a long line of acts that in recent years have frightened the people of the gas- and mineral-rich province of Cape Delgado (Cabo Delgado) in northern Mozambique.
In November, several villages in the area were attacked by armed groups that killed innocent people in reckless massacres.
The perpetrators belong to a sect-like extremist group, which according to Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues, senior researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, wants to establish a completely new society.
- It is a religious sect with radical views on how people should dress, how they should pray, and when they should visit the mosque.
They do not want children to go to school, because they do not recognize any schools other than Koranic schools, she tells TT.
Radicalized by poverty
Many observers have compared Boko Haram's growth in Nigeria.
Despite harassment and abuse of the local population, the jihadists have successfully succeeded in recruiting young men who have been radicalized by poverty and frustration over public absenteeism.
How the Mozambican government will handle the situation is unclear.
The government forces do not have the capacity to act themselves, but at the same time do not want to give foreign players too much leeway, according to Udelsmann Rodrigues.
- So how they should organize the efforts is difficult to say, she says.
"Deeply touching"
Among those who managed to get to Pemba by sea is a twelve-year-old boy, who stepped ashore barefoot after hitchhiking with a small boat.
His sister lives in the provincial capital, but he only knows her first name.
"Finding her is like looking for a needle in a haystack," Save the Children's Country Manager Chance Briggs told AFP.
Daphné Lucas of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) tells TT that the testimonies and reports of civilians who have had to flee Palma are extremely worrying.
- Once again, they have to pay a high price in the armed conflict.