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As if the problems in Cabo Delgado, in northern Mozambique, were no longer sufficiently extensive, given the jihadist attacks that have caused at least two thousand deaths and more than half a million displaced in the province, now food aid is starting to run out.
“Without further funding, which is urgent, the World Food Program (WFP) will be forced to reduce food portions or decrease the number of beneficiaries as early as December. In other words, in a week, ”the UN agency said in a statement.
The internally displaced in Cabo Delgado, concentrated around Pemba, the district capital, also begin to reach the southernmost provinces, such as Nampula and Niassa. The scale of the tragedy surprised WFP, which claimed some 29,000 people in January. Currently, the agency has reached “a record of 331,630 beneficiaries, among those displaced by the conflict in October”.
“The extent of this emergency” has extended the available resources to the maximum, the statement reads. “The number of internally displaced people is increasing every week, which puts pressure on the operational plan and capabilities of WFP”, he stresses, adding that “the health and socio-economic crisis caused by the emergence of the new coronavirus” makes resource mobilization even more. more demanding “. “We are facing a situation of underfunding throughout the year, which in a week will already be of lack of funding”.
WFP needs eight million dollars a month (about 6.7 million euros) to provide assistance to those fleeing the conflict in northern Mozambique. In other words, 96 million dollars (around 80 million euros) for the next 12 months with the aim of “reaching around 750 thousand internally displaced people and welcoming the communities in the next few months”. However, “only $ 11.7 million (€ 9.8 million) is guaranteed,” the agency said in Lusa.
Cabo Delgado is home to Africa’s largest private investment to explore natural gas, but it has been under attack by insurgents for three years. Some of the attacks have been claimed by the Daesh jihadist group since 2019.
In Pemba, “fear hangs in the air,” Salvador Forquilha, director of the Institute of Social and Economic Studies, told SOL. “People come every day from the areas affected by the conflict.”
“We were with families who, from one day to the next, began to have more than 60 people at home, they are more mouths to feed”.
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