Covid-19 “means more extreme and prolonged poverty and the denial of fundamental rights for ten million children in Mozambique” who are already disadvantaged, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today.
The statement is part of a set of analyzes published by that UN agency between Children’s Day, June 1, and African Children’s Day, celebrated on June 16.
Schools in Mozambique have been closed since March 23 as a way of preventing the progress of the new coronavirus and UNICEF issues an alert: “The longer schools are closed, the greater the loss of learning time and the greater the chance that children, especially girls, do not return to the classroom after the school reopens ”.
At the same time, “economic insecurity and prolonged school suspension can exacerbate trends for premature child marriages and transactional sex as ways of dealing with the situation and as protection mechanisms” by households.
UNICEF also highlights a “growing concern for the well-being of children in Cabo Delgado, northern province of the country, affected by a combination of factors: displacement, intense violence and poverty”.
That region has been attacked by armed groups for two and a half years, with attacks claimed by the ‘jihadist’ Islamic State group a year ago, causing at least 600 deaths and a humanitarian crisis for 211,000 people, UN data.
Overall, UNICEF also calls attention to “an aggravated reduction in access to essential health services due to a significant disruption to the health system”, which can “aggravate the existing vulnerability in children who need vaccination, suffer from chronic diseases, live with a disability or are affected by common infectious diseases, such as malaria ”.
“I hope that this information will start a constructive reflection and dialogue at all political levels and among a wide range of actors to respond to this emergency, recover the children’s future and reimagine a Mozambique suitable for each child after this crisis has eased ”Concludes Katarina Johansson, UNICEF representative in Mozambique.
Mozambique has an accumulated total of 409 cases of infection with the new coronavirus, two dead and 126 recovered.
