Covid-19: Humanitarian aid, workers fly in twice a week – Mozambique

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Covid-19: Humanitarian aid, workers fly in twice a week – Mozambique

3:53 CAT | 30 Jul 2020

Photo: WFP Africa

Since June, two flights a week have been guaranteeing the transport of goods and humanitarian workers from various United Nations entities and agencies to Mozambique, according to the latest report by the relief organizations’ logistics group.

“Blanket authorisation [for the flights] was granted by the Ministry of Transport and Communications on June 17,” the document reads. “The first humanitarian flight arrived in Mozambique on June 23 and, since then, two flights per week, on Tuesday and Thursday, have been operating between Johannesburg-Lilongwe-Maputo.”

“The World Food Programme (WFP) logistics preparedness team has been strongly involved in supporting the opening of the humanitarian corridor in order to bring the necessary aid to Mozambique from the regional hubs,” it adds.

In addition to Covid-19, the WFP and other organisations were already dealing with serious shortages of food and shelter, among other needs, as a result of the armed attacks in Cabo Delgado, which have displaced 250,000 people, and extreme weather events last year, namely Cyclones Idai and Kenneth.

The second quarter of 2020 “was marked by key achievements such as the opening of the humanitarian corridor allowing aid workers and relief goods to better circulate between South Africa and Mozambique,” the document concludes.

…and we have touchdown in #Mozambique 🛬👏🏾@UNICEFAfrica vaccines have arrived from #SouthAfrica on a @WFP humanitarian flight.

The #humanitarian hub, supported by @DIRCO_ZA moves:

🙍🏾#passengers– aid workers
📦#cargo– protective gear
💉#medicines – using cold chain storage pic.twitter.com/7t2hg3mMEg

— WFP Africa (@WFP_Africa) July 16, 2020

📢 WFP Global Flights have just started in Southern Africa, covering destinations as Maputo, Lilongwe and Johannesburg.

Through Johannesburg – Addis Ababa ✈️, aid workers can connect to other regions and continue their journey to helping others. pic.twitter.com/6i5co2jrSK

— UN Humanitarian Air Service (@WFP_UNHAS) June 19, 2020

Mozambique has an accumulated total of 1,748 cases of infection with the new coronavirus, with 11 fatalities and 616 patients accounted fully recovered.

The Covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 666,000 lives and infected more than 17 million people in 196 countries and territories worldwide, according to a report by the French AFP agency.

The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China.

Source: Lusa