Mozambique: Country asks for financial aid to be ready to face cyclone season – report

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Mozambique: Country asks for financial aid to be ready to face cyclone season – report

9:15 CAT | 25 Nov 2019

File photo: Lusa

The Mozambican government on Monday began diplomatic contacts to receive €17 million in financial aid to enable the country to be ready to face disasters, the minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, José Pacheco, said.

Due to insufficient resources, we ask our partners, together, to evaluate the best ways to overcome this budget deficit presented in our contingency plan 2019-2020, he said.

José Pacheco spoke during a meeting with representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Maputo, to which he made known the needs of the contingency plan for the rainy and cyclone season, which runs from November to April.

The plan, which was approved by the Council of Ministers on 22 October, is budgeted at 2.1 billion meticais (€30 million), of which only about 850 million meticais (€12.1 million) are guaranteed, the minister added.

Estimates of 1.6 million people could be affected by natural disasters in the country.

Of the amount already secured, 300 million meticais (€4.29 million) are the result of contributions from the Mozambican Government and 540 million meticais (€7.7 million) from the World Bank.

“This illustrates that we are facing a deficit of 1.2 billion meticais (€17.1 million)”, said José Pacheco.

Data presented on Monday, during the meeting with the diplomatic community, by the Director-General of the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC), Augusta Maíta, said that 714 people died during the rainy season 2018/2019, including 648 victims of cyclones Idai and Kenneth.

Between November and April, Mozambique is hit by cyclone winds from the Indian Ocean and by floods, a phenomenon caused by its geographical location, downstream of most of the river basins of southern Africa.

Source: Lusa