Mozambique: Government sends brigades to monitor cholera cases in four provinces
FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]
Almost 50,000 people in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, victims of insurgent attacks in the province, received emergency assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2023, the organisation announced on Wednesday.
Although approximately 570,000 internally displaced people have returned to their homes, especially in Mocímboa da Praia, they have found abandoned villages without basic services such as drinking water, access to health care and means of subsistence,” the organisation said in a statement.
“In addition, families who had been separated by the violence have returned in the hope of being reunited with their loved ones,” it adds.
On the ground, the ICRC says that, together with the Mozambique Red Cross, it “continued to support internally displaced people and vulnerable host communities with their urgent humanitarian needs”, while also providing assistance to displaced people who had returned to their places of origin, “helping to build resilience”.
“The emphasis was on livelihoods, essential services and systemic support. To be closer to the affected communities, we opened an office in Mueda [district of Cabo Delgado],” it reads.
Specifically, in emergency assistance, the ICRC says it distributed seed and tool kits to 25,000 people, including 12 kilograms (kg) of maize, 10 kg of nhemba beans, 3 kg of sesame seeds and two hoes each, “to help them restart food production”.
In addition, in the emergency assistance, 22,805 people “received financial assistance for different purposes so that they could meet urgent and basic needs”.
In addition, explains the ICRC, 27,620 people received “essential household items to help them restart their lives” during this period.
Among the interventions carried out by the institution in Cabo Delgado were eight “water committees”, made up of 113 people, “including local leaders [who] were trained to manage the water supply infrastructure built for sustainability” and conditions to allow 123,000 people to have “improved access to clean and safe drinking water in Montepuez and Mocímboa da Praia”.
Improved access to health care was also guaranteed, with 948,500 consultations carried out in ICRC-supported health centres, and the hospitals in Mueda, Montepuez, Pemba and Ibo “were supported with regular donations of medicines, medical supplies and equipment, infrastructure support, blood donation campaigns and fuel”.
4,841 surgeries were also carried out in ICRC-supported health centres, of which 2,553 “to help pregnant women and 47 to help patients injured by weapons”.
The institution also provided medicines and medical supplies, as well as technical support to 11 health centres and a mobile health unit in four districts of Cabo Delgado.
The province of Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed insurgency for six years with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State, which has led to a military response since July 2021, with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts next to gas projects.
The conflict has already displaced a million people, according to data from UN agencies, and caused around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.
In addition to the Mozambican government forces, troops from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community ( SADC) are fighting the insurgency in Cabo EIS, on the perimeter of the area where the natural gas projects in the Rovuma basin are located.
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