There are 350,000 displaced children in Cabo Delgado

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There are 350,000 displaced children in Cabo Delgado

9:59 CAT | 01 Apr 2021

Photo:Noticias

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that the conflict in Cabo Delgado has already displaced 350,000 children, 17,000 of them in last week’s attack on Palma.

In a statement, UNICEF calls for additional protection for child victims of violence in Cabo Delgado and alerts to the general urgency of humanitarian aid to those living in the province, now ravaged by Covid-19 and cholera as well as extreme poverty.

On Tuesday, UNICEF received a group of children evacuated from Afungi by UN Humanitarian Air Services, at least seven of whom were unaccompanied.

“Disoriented and afraid, many of these children spent days hiding in the bush, without food and water. The situation, which was already serious before the recent Palma attack, is now even more urgent and challenging for UNICEF teams on the ground,” the UN agency said.

Impact of the attack “brutal”

According to UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, the impact of the attack on Palma on Wednesday last week, which Mozambican authorities say resulted in the deaths of dozens of people and the displacement of hundreds more, could be “brutal”.

“Palma was already hosting well over 35,000 people forcibly displaced from other areas of the province by previous attacks, half of them children. The district has been cut off by road for the past months by the security situation, with minimum supplies and assistance provided by air and sea,” Fore said.

Small quantities of food and other items have started arriving recently, but until a few days ago, much of the district beyond the capital, Pemba, was virtually inaccessible to aid workers, she said.

At least three health units are no longer operational, and the main hospital has been destroyed. Injured children are receiving care at Pemba Provincial Hospital, and more are on the way.

“Situation extremely serious”

UNICEF is preparing to receive the children in various parts of the province, foreseeing that “they will need absolutely everything – protection, nutrition, health care and someone to listen to them and provide psycho-social support”.

Beatriz Imperatori, executive director of UNICEF Portugal, says that “the situation in Mozambique is extremely serious”. “Mozambique is now also facing the consequences of an armed conflict that has already displaced around 350,000 children. Local populations have been facing shock after shock since 2019, including cyclones and extreme weather events,” Imperatori said.

UNICEF, which is receiving donations in support of operations in Cabo Delgado, is calling on all parties to do everything in their power to keep children out of harm’s way, to protect aid workers and to allow rapid, unimpeded and sustained access to civilians in need of assistance.

UN has recorded 8,000 more people affected

According to a spokesman for the UN secretary-general, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) “has already registered about 8,000 people at arrival points in Nangade, Mueda, Montepuez and Pemba” in Cabo Delgado since last week, but hundreds of people are still trying to leave Palma and there are “thousands of people” on the move “on foot, by boat and by road”.

“The escalating violence in Cabo Delgado province continues to drive mass displacement following recent attacks by non-state armed groups and ongoing clashes reported in Palma since 24 March,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for António Guterres, told a virtual press conference. “It is important for the international community to support Mozambique in the most effective ways possible at this time,” he said.

Dujarric said several UN agencies on the ground were trying to provide relief and humanitarian aid in Mozambique, including the United Nations Population Fund, which had been pre-positioning birthing kits and essential drugs to support displaced pregnant women and mothers.

The World Food Programme is trying to help 50,000 people “affected by the deadly violence in Palma” with the distribution of emergency food parcels and, together with UNICEF, to provide clean drinking water to a “desperate population”, according to a statement issued on Wednesday.

Source: Deutsche Welle