The European Union (EU) has donated €780,000 to the government of Lesotho to support various humanitarian projects targeting vulnerable households in the country.
The donation, Development Diaries understands, is part of a bigger donation of €24.5 million humanitarian aid for Southern Africa and Indian Ocean countries.
While announcing the donation in Brussels, Belgium, the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, said Southern Africa was highly vulnerable to various natural hazards, including cyclones, droughts and epidemics.
Countries in the region have over the past few years been hit hard by the El-Niño weather phenomenon which alternately induces flooding and droughts.
The World Food Programme (WFP), in a January 2021 report, noted that all the ten districts of Lesotho were in the crisis category due to the El-Niño-induced drought which resulted in poor harvests in the 2019/20 agricultural season.
‘In some countries of the region, this is exacerbated by a challenging political and socio-economic environment, while the overall situation is aggravated by the [Covid-19] pandemic’, Lenarčič said.
‘On top of economic and political challenges, the region faces natural hazards including recurring droughts and cyclones.
‘Disasters represent a major source of risk for the most vulnerable populations and can undermine development gains.
‘Due to the [Covid-19] pandemic, many poor households are having difficulty meeting food and non-food needs because of lockdowns and other [Covid-19]-related restrictive measures.
‘EU assistance seeks to alleviate the humanitarian consequences on the most vulnerable populations and improve disaster preparedness in the region’.
According to the EU official, €600,000 will be used to finance disaster preparedness projects while the remaining €180,000 will go towards the ‘Education in Emergencies (EiE)’ project.
The EiE project is an EU initiative aimed at helping children affected by humanitarian crises to have access to safe, quality and accredited primary and secondary education.
Mozambique also got funding (€7.86 million) from EU to respond to the humanitarian crisis in its northern province of Cabo Delgado.
Since 2017, Islamic insurgents, who pledge allegiance to the Islamic State group (ISIS), have waged a brutal war which has either killed or displaced thousands of people.
Source: European Union
Photo source: John Karwoski
