Mozambique: Police officer kills a colleague and injures two children
Picture: Noticias
The Mozambican government decided on Monday to dismantle most of the accommodation centres established in the central province of Manica to accommodate victims of cyclone Idai, which hit the country on 14 March, and of the subsequent floods.
According to a report in Tuesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, the accommodation centres concerned are in the provincial capital, Chimoio, and the districts of Sussundenga, Vanduzi and Macate. The people living here have expressed a desire to return to their home areas and a normal life. The government has promised to resettle them in areas with a lower risk of flooding.
On a visit to Manica and the neighbouring province of Sofala, the areas worst hit by the disaster, the Minister of State Administration, Carmelita Namashalua, said the government is gradually establishing the conditions for decent resettlement of the affected population.
She promised that the government will continue to provide basic assistance, particularly food and health care. Education is resuming, she added, with classes restarting, particularly in schools which are no longer operating as accommodation centres.
“In Sofala and Manica, I noted a great capacity to overcome difficulties”, said Namashalua. “In talks I had with many people, they requested means of production, and I saw that the people understand that these situations are beyond the control of any one individual”.
Also on Monday, the director of the Mozambican relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), Augusta Maita, reported the start of activities of an independent commission charged with assisting in the distribution of humanitarian aid to the cyclone victims.
The commission is formed of the private company Terra Mar Logistics and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Both these institutions have begun to move their staff to the accommodation centres.
This implements a promise made last week by President Filipe Nyusi. He said the magnitude and scale of the disaster have impelled the government to work with specialist agencies in the transparent and credible administration of emergency aid.
The government, Nyusi said, would “engage an international partner who will work with the INGC to ensure all the elements of good management of the donated funds and goods, and to make available good quality information about the resources received and how they are being used”.
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