Cabo Delgado: Security in district headquarters good for aid response – UN

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Cabo Delgado: Security in district headquarters good for aid response – UN

8:20 CAT | 06 Mar 2020

Myrta Kaulard . [File photo: Lusa]

The United Nations coordinator in Mozambique on Friday argued that the security situation in Cabo Delgado district headquarters should be used to strengthen humanitarian aid in response to cyclones and armed violence.

“At the moment there is security at the district headquarters and it is very important to preserve this security”, said Myrta Kaulard in an interview with Lusa.

The aid encompasses victims of insecurity and of cyclone Kenneth, which hit the region in April 2019.

“Many people are in [district] headquarters and that’s where we can help the people,” that is, to focus on “developing the humanitarian side” of the response to the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado.

The number of beneficiaries of the UN system, around 150,000, coincides with the total that the Mozambican government said has already been affected in some way, with deaths of relatives, injuries, loss of property or forced abandonment of their land and housing.

The attacks by armed groups take place mainly in rural and remote areas, so the security at the headquarters will also provide shelter to humanitarian workers who are delivering food aid, providing health services, drinking water, sanitation, social protection and education.

“We work closely with the country’s health system. I want to underline the great collaboration and efforts of the institutions in Cabo Delgado,” the UN resident coordinator said.

The support to the region is included in a total appeal of $120 million (€106 million) that the UN system needs urgently, she said, to maintain support to around one million people in Mozambique – also covering victims of cyclones in the centre and drought in the south.

“We need much more because it is very important to invest now in humanitarian aid and development in the Cabo Delgado area. It is a priority that all the authorities at the highest level in Mozambique should have in mind”.

Since January, the province has faced an added difficulty: the collapse of bridges on the only paved road that crosses the province from north to south.

“With climate change, there has been such heavy rainfall that there has been great damage to infrastructure: we also have a major logistical problem and these works are expensive and difficult”.

Cabo Delgado province has been the target of attacks by armed groups that international organisations classify as a terrorist threat, and which in two and a half years has already killed at least 350 people, in addition to 156,400 people affected with loss of property or forced to abandon their homes and lands in search of safe places.

Source: Lusa