UK donates extra €16M in humanitarian aid for cyclone victims in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe

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UK donates extra €16M in humanitarian aid for cyclone victims in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe

8:59 CAT | 13 Apr 2019

Photo: Twitter / @MatthewRycroft1

The United Kingdom (UK) is to give additional £14 million (€16 million) in humanitarian aid to victims of Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, the government announced on Thursday.

The new funding will be used for food, water and sanitation facilities, health and infrastructure as well as emergency education to children caught up in the disaster, the country’s minister for international development, Penny Mordaunt, said on arriving in Washington for the 2019 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund.

Fundraising roundtable for #CycloneIdai @WorldBank for #Mozambique #Malawi #Zimbabwe ⁦@MthuliNcube⁩ #SpringMeetings2019 pic.twitter.com/qIsE0jE3sF

— Anne Kabagambe (@akabagambe) April 11, 2019

Mordaunt took part in a discussion on the international community’s response to the crisis and will encourage more donations for victims of the cyclone, with the main donors being the US and the UK, as well as donations to help African countries to deal with the impact of climate change.

The round table for donors in response to Cyclone Idai was co-organised by Portugal, the UK, and the World Bank to promote the contribution and coordination of donors to help countries affected by the cyclone, especially Mozambique, the government of Portugal said on Thursday.

The UK had already promised £22 million (€26 million) in humanitarian aid, including £4 million (€4.7 million) through the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group of UK charities, which has raised £29 million (€34 million) for victims of the cyclone.

UK aid has already provided temporary accommodation for around 50,000 people affected by the cyclone, as well as cash support and food supplies to feed around 700,000 people. It has also sent purification cubes, blankets and solar lanterns to the region and provided chartered planes and equipment to help distribute supplies.

A team of British health workers is in the region to help deal with the growing threat of disease following the disaster. They are working alongside the World Health Organisation in Mozambique, to assess the risk of cholera.

At the Washington meeting, Mordaunt stressed the need to help African countries become more resilient to climate change.

“We have all seen images of the terrible suffering and devastation caused by Cyclone Idai. The UK has, from the start, led the way in supporting the victims of this destruction and the fresh funding I am announcing will provide further help where it is most needed, right now. But we must plan for the future too. Over the next century increasing temperatures are likely to make severe weather events across Africa more frequent. The UK is already leading the way in helping African communities adapt to climate shocks, providing technical expertise and finance,” she said.

“However, climate change is a global issue which requires global action. We must act now, so worldwide we are better prepared to deal with future extreme weather events. If we don’t the consequences could be devastating,” stressed Mordaunt.

African nations are responsible for just 2 to 3% of global emissions, but Africa is set to be the continent worst impacted by climate change, hit by changing season patterns that damage crops and natural disasters that threaten communities.

During the World Bank roundtable Ms Mordaunt will urge her international counterparts to support African nations to:

improve crisis preparedness and resilience, so countries can better cope with disasters;
strengthen the use and accuracy of forecasts to predict destructive weather patterns, and;
increase the use of disaster risk financing, so countries can more easily access funding following a disaster.

.@PennyMordaunt has announced additional funding to help people deal with the impact of Cyclone Idai.

The funding includes humanitarian aid, food, water, sanitation and will provide emergency education to children caught up in the disaster.#WBGMeetings pic.twitter.com/w72gzhKsDX

— DFID (@DFID_UK) April 11, 2019