Mozambique: Switzerland provides additional US$1 million for IDPs

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Switzerland provides additional US$1 million for IDPs

1:48 CAT | 05 Apr 2021

FILE - llustrative photo of the flag of Switzerland. (CC BY-SA, Wikimedia Commons)

The Swiss government has made US$1 million (€850,000) available for humanitarian assistance to people displaced by armed violence in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, the Swiss embassy in Mozambique announced on Saturday.

“The Swiss people will provide an additional US$1 million to be used for humanitarian aid in the northern region,” humanitarian coordinator at the embassy, Gianluca Guidotti, said.

Guidotti was speaking in Pemba on Saturday, at the first health promotion project supervision committee meeting in Cabo Delgado.

The amount, according to the coordinator, will be used to improve access to health care and drinking water in IDP resettlement villages.

“The Swiss embassy reiterates its willingness to continue providing technical and financial support to the province of Cabo Delgado,” added Milton Saranga, programme officer at the Swiss embassy.

The violence unleashed more than three years ago in the province of Cabo Delgado escalated a week ago, when armed groups first attacked the village of Palma, about 25 kilometres from the multimillion-dollar natural gas projects led by Total.

The attacks killed dozens and forced the flight of thousands of residents, aggravating a humanitarian crisis that has affected about 700,000 people in the province since the beginning of the conflict, according to United Nations data.

On Saturday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that “at least 9,158 people, 45% of them children, have arrived in the districts of Nangade, Mueda, Montepuez and Pemba from the town of Palma since March 24”.

Source: Lusa