Food shortage for drought victims

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Food shortage for drought victims

1:11 CAT | 18 May 2016

epa04246352 The soil of a corn field is torn and dried out in Sieversdorf, Germany, 07 June 2014. High temperatures of up to more than 30 degrees Celsius in the past days, long sunshine hours and only a fe rain showers have caused the soil to dry out and crack. EPA/PATRICK PLEUL

Mozambique needs 15,000 tonnes of food to guarantee assistance to 900,000 people affected by the severe drought hitting the southern and central regions. However, according to official figures, there is only enough food to cover 339,000 people.

Following a meeting last week of the government’s Disaster Management Technical Council (CTGC) it was revealed that there is a lack of food to assist the 1.4 million people affected in the provinces of Zambezia, Tete, Manica, Sofala, Inhambane, Gaza, and Maputo.

Since the start of the food aid programme last year, around 720,000 people have received a total of 7,228 tonnes of various sustenance including cereals and beans.

Last month, the government declared a “red alert” for the southern and central provinces due to the drought. According to CTGC spokesperson Paulo Tomas, because of the shortages, the focus will be on providing assistance to the most vulnerable people such as the elderly, children and pregnant women.

Meanwhile, the health sector has designed an emergency response to cover the affected provinces. It is based on the assessment that eleven million people are in a situation of moderate to severe malnutrition. Of these, 1.4 million are children up to the age of six.

A million US dollars has been made available for this emergency response. However, a further eight million dollars is still required.

In particular, the provinces of Manica and Tete require special attention.

Source: AIM