Mozambique: More than 125,000 people need food aid because of drought

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Mozambique: More than 125,000 people need food aid because of drought

7:21 CAT | 14 Jul 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: DW]

More than 125,000 people need urgent food assistance in Caia district, Sofala province, central Mozambique, due to the devastation of crops caused by the drought caused by the ‘El Niño’ phenomenon, local authorities said on Friday.

“The situation is worrying for our communities, it is estimated that more than 125,000 people are in need of urgent food aid, the situation is the result of the drought caused by the ‘El Niño’ phenomenon,” said Nobre dos Santos, administrator of Caia, in statements to journalists.

Santos said that the drought has destroyed thousands of hectares of maize, rice, beans and sesame crops, jeopardising the current agricultural campaign.

“Of the approximately 800,000 tonnes of various products that the district expected to produce, it only obtained just over 200,000,” he said.

The Caia administrator appealed to farmers to bet on growing crops in low-lying areas, where the water hasn’t all dried up, and to avoid selling all their agricultural produce, so as not to face starvation.

Mozambique’s National Meteorological Institute (INAM) recently said that ‘El Niño’ could aggravate the lack of rain that the country is already experiencing.

At the end of last September, the president of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, called for the population and organisations to be prepared for the foreseeable effects of the ‘El Niño’ phenomenon on the country in the coming months, with predictions of above-normal rainfall and outbreaks of drought.

In the first quarter of last year, heavy rains and Cyclone Freddy caused 306 deaths, affected more than 1.3 million people in the country, destroyed 236,000 homes and 3,200 classrooms, according to official government figures.

The 2018/2019 rainy season was one of the most severe on record in Mozambique: 714 people died, including 648 victims of cyclones Idai and Kenneth, two of the biggest ever to hit the country.

Source: Lusa