Agência Lusa reports that due to a lack of funds, the World Food Program (WFP), a United Nations agency, reduced assistance to at least 418,630 people affected by armed violence in the Cabo Delgado region, in northern Mozambique.
Since April 2022, WFP has been distributing reduced amounts of food and is now focusing its assistance based on the degree of vulnerability in at least four districts of Cabo Delgado, as revealed in an organization report cited by the newspaper Notícias.
The organization noted that “acute food insecurity has increased in recent years in the northern region, as ongoing conflict and displacement, along with climate and economic shocks, disrupt agricultural activities and communities’ purchasing power.”
In collaboration with local authorities, WFP plans to gradually expand vulnerability-based assistance to five more districts in the province.
In February, WFP suspended emergency aid to more than a million people affected by armed violence in northern Mozambique, also due to a lack of funds.
The organization reported that it offered courses to 1,368 people to encourage entrepreneurship and noted that at least 690,400 people face crisis levels of food insecurity, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification assessment.
Additionally, WFP is collaborating with the Mozambican Institute of Disaster Management to activate and implement mitigation plans in response to drought risk in several regions of Mozambique.
The province of Cabo Delgado is facing an armed insurgency that has lasted almost six years, with some of the attacks being claimed by the extremist group Islamic State. The Mozambique Armed Defense Forces have been fighting terrorism on the ground since July 2021, with the support of Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The conflict has already resulted in approximately one million people being displaced, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registry project, although the Mozambican President recently admitted “more than 2,000” fatalities.
