Niassa is a province of Mozambique. It has an area of 129,056 km² and a population of approximately 900,000 (2002). It is the most sparsely populated province in the country.
The Ruvuma River forms much of the northern boundary of the province with Tanzania while Lake Niassa forms the western border of the province, separating it from Malawi.
Lichinga is a city located in the province of Niassa in Mozambique. It lies almost 1500 m above sea level on the Lichinga Plateau, east of Lake Niassa (Lake Malawi). The town has a population of 112,000 and was founded as Vila Cabral as a military settlement and is home to an airport. Owing to its high altitude location and surrounded by a dense pine-tree plantation, the town experiences a temperate-cold climate, with winter months as cold as 0°C and summertime rarely hotter than 32 °C.