The World Food Programme (WFP) has received U.S.$41 million from the United States to cover emergency humanitarian aid in Mozambique.
The WFP Deputy Director in Mozambique, Pierre Lucas, confirmed the additional aid in an interview with AIM.
It is understood that the United Nations entity is assisting over 900,000 people, mostly displaced from their homes by terrorist raids.
Cabo Delgado, one of Mozambique’s poorest regions, has been embroiled in a violent insurgency waged by the Ahlu-Sunna Wa-Jama’a (ASWJ) since 2017.
The conflict has claimed thousands of lives, displaced hundreds of thousands and severely impacted health, water, and shelter facilities and access to food in the region.
‘Due to the recent contributions from the United States, the WFP will once more be able to offer a complete basket of foodstuffs, from October to December, to avert a humanitarian crisis’, Lucas said.
According to Lucas, a further U.S.$43.5 million will be needed by March 2023 to guarantee emergency assistance to the neediest people in northern Mozambique.
‘Without additional new funds, we shall run out of money in the first quarter of 2023, precisely at the start of the period of shortages, when the food reserves become exhausted’, he added.
The government of Japan recently donated U.S.$3.9 million to the WFP in Mozambique to tackle food insecurity in communities affected by drought in the south, and households displaced by violence in the north.
The Japanese government, in a statement, explained that U.S.$2.4 million will support the WFP in providing food and humanitarian assistance to over 35,100 people displaced by the violence in Cabo Delgado.
Photo source: Alfredo Zuniga/AFP
