Unicef provided emergency assistance to 61,400 people in Mozambique in 2024

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Unicef provided emergency assistance to 61,400 people in Mozambique in 2024

10:13 CAT | 18 Feb 2025

File photo: Unicef Mozambique

The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) provided emergency medical assistance to
61,400 people affected by climate change in Mozambique last year, the UN agency said in a
report.

Of the beneficiaries of assistance, 10,315 are children under five years of age, according to
the report to which Lusa had access.

"In addition, the rehabilitation and equipment of nine health centres in the provinces of Sofala and Nampula provided access to health care for more than one million people," the document reveals.

Unicef conducted a public health emergency risk analysis in Mozambique, to improve the
country's "preparedness" and "resilience" in the face of climate change, the report details.

"This study will help Mozambique develop risk-informed programs and prioritize actions for preparation, prevention and response to future public health emergencies," it reasons.

Mozambique is considered one of the countries most severely affected by climate change in
the world, facing floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs between
October and April.

The last rainy season in Mozambique, which began in October 2023 (until April of the
following year), affected around 240,000 people, completely destroying more than
1,800 houses, according to data presented in June 2024 by the government.

"Across the national territory, around 240,000 people were affected, more than 34,000
houses damaged, more than 5,000 partially destroyed and around 1,800 completely destroyed," the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Communications,
Ambrósio Sitoe, said at the time.

Extreme events, such as cyclones and storms, caused at least 1,016 deaths in Mozambique
between 2019 and 2023, affecting around 4.9 million people, according to data from the
National Statistics Institute (INE) previously reported by Lusa.

In the 2023 Basic Environmental Indicators report, INE details all extreme events since 2019,
and their consequences, adding that these also caused 2,936 injuries in the same four-year
period.

The province of Sofala, in central Mozambique, was the hardest hit by a single event, with
Cyclone Idai, in 2019, causing 403 of the 603 fatalities countrywide there, while affecting
1,190,594 people and injuring 1,597.

Source: Lusa