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Mozambique: More medicines sent to Cabo Delgado as population returns – governor
11:52 CAT | 21 Aug 2023
Image: RM
Mozambique’s health authorities are reinforcing the stock of medicines in Cabo Delgado province because of the return of the population that fled the terrorist attacks in recent years, an official said on Thursday.”Since the population is returning, our priority is to replenish the medicines according to the number of people that are returning to the places where the health centres were closed,” explained doctor Edson Renato, from the Provincial Health Service in Cabo Delgado.
On Thursday, the service received 1,652 kits for elementary multipurpose agents and 132 kits for health units, the latter corresponding to 1,000 consultations, to “reinforce stocks of medicines over the next six months”, prioritising the districts to which the population is returning in Cabo Delgado.
More than 50 health units closed due to the insurgency of the last almost six years in northern Mozambique, namely in Macomia, Muidumbe, Quissanga, Palma and Mocimboa da Praia, which is why most of the returning population is now served by elementary multipurpose agents, through mobile brigades or mobile clinics, with medicines being allocated according to the number of units reopened in each region.
“Depending on the number of health centres that come back into operation, we allocate quantities of medicines to cover the population that has returned, through assistance at the health centres or through mobile brigades or mobile clinics, which provide assistance to the population. So the medicines are allocated to the health units or district medicine depots,” concluded Renato Edson.
As well as serving the districts where the population is returning, the medicines now being distributed are intended to prevent stock-outs before the start of the next rainy season in October.
More than 400,000 people who were victims of insurgent attacks in northern Mozambique over the last five years have returned to their areas of origin, namely Cabo Delgado, but almost 820,000 are still displaced, according to official figures.
According to the most recent update by the National Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (INGD), released on 10 August,”at least 409,087 people” have returned to their areas of origin.
However, “there are still 819,004 displaced people”, of which 764,332 are in Cabo Delgado province, and the rest in the provinces of Niassa (4,533), Nampula (39,875), Manica (5,582), Sofala (3,376) and Zambézia (1,191), among others.
The province of Cabo Delgado (northern Mozambique) has been facing an armed insurgency for five years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
The insurgency has led to a military response since July 2021 with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts near gas projects, but new waves of attacks have started in the south of the region and in neighbouring Nampula province.
The conflict has already caused around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.
Source: Lusa
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