Johannesburg, Apr 20 (AP) Some 40,000 displaced and urgently needing food, work suspended on a multi-billion-dollar gas investment, and scores of dead still being counted.

The damage caused by Mozambique's extremist rebels in their deadly assault on the northeastern town of Palma continues to be assessed.

Four weeks after the rebels launched a three-pronged attack, which lasted at least five days, Mozambican police and relief agencies are working to help the thousands uprooted by the violence and restore the town to daily life.

Although the fighting has ended, Palma does not appear to be completely secure, the rebels still able to make hit and run attacks, according to Cabo Ligado, which reports on the crisis caused by extremist violence in Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province.

Thousands of families are continuing to flee Palma by trekking on foot or seeking evacuation by sea or air.

The aftermath of the siege of Palma is adding to the humanitarian crisis in northern Mozambique.

An estimated 700,000 people have been displaced and more than 2,600 killed in the conflict against the extremist rebels, according to the U.N.

The number of civilians killed in Palma is being added up by officials. One survivor counted 87 dead, reported Mediafax, a local news publication. That number may include up to 12 bodies that police chief Pedro da Silva said were buried beneath a mango tree after being killed while attempting to flee from the Amarula hotel which had been surrounded by insurgents.

One of the first targets of the rebels, estimated to number between 100 and 200, were the banks in Palma, from which they stole about USD 1 million, according to local reports.

The Mozambican military claims to have killed at least 36 attackers and da Silva told state television that one of the group's leaders, named as Ayub, was killed when security forces bombed the town's main mosque where the attackers were thought to be hiding.

On April 18, state TV reported that the military claimed to have killed 41 “terrorists”.

Thousands of those who fled Palma are in danger of dying of thirst or starvation, according to relief agencies. Many who hiked to safety reported they saw dead bodies along the way, of people who have died from hunger or dehydration, according to Doctors Without Borders.

“The only water available was from a single dirty river,” said Amparo Vilasmil, the medical group's mental health activity manager for Mozambique. She said people usually follow main roads when fleeing, but sleep “well inside the forests for protection, avoiding villages and surviving on what little they can find.”

“It's just constant, constant stories where you talk to people about having to run in the middle of the night, with, hopefully, the family together, but very often, families being separated,” Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF's director of emergency programs, told journalists in Pemba, the provincial capital south of Palma, where many of the displaced are sheltering. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)