Mozambique: World Food Programme ‘extremely concerned’ asks for €4M monthly

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Mozambique: World Food Programme ‘extremely concerned’ asks for €4M monthly

2:40 CAT | 23 Sep 2020

File photo: Lusa

The World Food Programme (WFP) is following the conflict in Cabo Delgado with deep concern, said the representative in Mozambique, stressing on Wednesday in a statement the urgent need for funding of €4 million per month.

A note released by the United Nations said that the WFP is extremely concerned about the escalation of the conflict and the deterioration of the food security situation in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, where more than 300,000 people have fled their homes and villages, abandoning their fields and becoming dependent on humanitarian aid.

The United Nations programme highlighted that it urgently needs $4.7 million (€4 million) per month to help the internally displaced in northern Mozambique and warned that food rations could be reduced as of December without additional funding.

Antonella D’Aprile, WFP’s representative in Mozambique, found the humanitarian situation deeply worrying, with the conflict and violence leaving people without access to food and livelihoods.

According to D’Aprile, the crisis becomes even more complex with the Covid-19 pandemic in the place where growing insecurity and poor infrastructure is observed, making it difficult to assist people in need.

Nevertheless, according to the estimates of the humanitarian organization, some 310,000 people will have access to food, vouchers and nutritional support every month in the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa.

Information from the FEWS NET food security analysis and monitoring system warns that Mozambican communities will continue to face levels of food insecurity crisis in early 2021.

FEWS NET analyses said that Cabo Delgado has the second-highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the country and that more than half of children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition in the area.

“Thousands of refugees have crossed the border into Tanzania, raising concerns among the international community about the regionalisation of the conflict,” WFP said.

“With Cabo Delgado currently recording the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases in Mozambique, population displacements have the potential to accelerate the spread of the virus,” the UN programme said.

Cabo Delgado has been facing attacks for more than three years from armed groups that have already killed more than 1,000 people and displaced 250,000, of whom WFP supported 195,000 in July, according to the UN agency.

The total number of IDPs in accommodation camps in Mozambique amounts to 345,000, the majority in Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Source: Lusa