Maputo — The United States has disbursed about 40 million dollars to provide assistance to over 790,000 people, as well as humanitarian air services, in northern Mozambique.
The amount, channelled to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), was allocated through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
According to a WFP Thursday statement, “the aid comes at a critical time, since 3.15 million people in the country are facing high levels of food insecurity, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, November 2022-March 2023, released last March in Maputo by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.’
For WFP, the funding will help provide vital food and nutrition assistance to people affected by conflict and disaster, as well as to some refugees from the Great Lakes region who are in the northern provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa. It will also keep flights from the humanitarian community running.
“We are grateful to the people of the United States who have reached out to the people of Mozambique’, said WFP Country Director in Mozambique, Antonella D’Aprile.
“The assistance is not only helping the most vulnerable people meet their immediate needs, but is helping to strengthen much-needed resilience, promote peace, and strengthen the stability of communities’, she added.
The U.S. donation will also allow WFP to continue providing air and logistical services to all humanitarian partners operating in Mozambique.
The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), managed by WFP, is crucial for transporting humanitarian personnel and essential cargo to destinations in northern Mozambique that would not be commercially viable.
“With this significant contribution to the World Food Programme, the United States is partnering to improve food security in Mozambique’, said the U.S. Ambassador to Mozambique, Peter Vrooman, adding that “food assistance to people displaced by conflict provides not only sustenance for their bodies, but a support for their resilience and recovery.’