London — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Monday lamented that it has only received 16.3 million US dollars in donations to provide life-saving and life-sustaining services for children in Mozambique.
In June, UNICEF increased its annual Humanitarian Action for Children appeal for Mozambique to 96.5 million US dollars due to escalating needs, particularly in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. However, it has so far this year received less than seventeen per cent of the appeal, although when taking into account funds carried over from previous years the funding gap stands at 69 per cent.
The areas most neglected by UNICEF’s funders are its nutrition programme which has a funding gap of 89 per cent and its Education programme which still needs to receive 87 per cent of its budget.
UNICEF expressed its gratitude to all its donors, who include the governments of Canada, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Italy, and the United Kingdom. However, it warned that significant needs remain for all of its ongoing emergency programmes and that “without the required funding, UNICEF will be unable to provide access to safe water, health and nutrition services, learning opportunities, critical child protection support and support to survivors of gender-based violence”.
Turning its focus to Cabo Delgado, where violence by islamist terrorists has caused enormous population movements, UNICEF warns that 732,227 people have been displaced. Over 90 per cent of these are still in Cabo Delgado, and the remainder are scattered over four other northern and central provinces. UNICEF points out that 46 per cent of the internally displaced are children, with 2,733 identified as unaccompanied or separated.
Parts of Cabo Delgado have been under attack from islamist terrorists since October 2017, forcing people from their homes and destroying livelihoods.