“More than 513,000 people have been affected [by the floods in Mozambique], more than half of whom are children. More than 50,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and are now sheltered in 62 temporary centres, many of which are overcrowded,” said Guy Taylor, communications officer for the UN agency in Mozambique, at a press conference in Switzerland.
According to Taylor, the floods are not only destroying public and private infrastructure, they are also rendering water unfit for consumption, paving the way for outbreaks of disease and malnutrition, “a deadly threat to children.”
“The exceptionally heavy rains we saw during the first weeks of January triggered an emergency that is rapidly worsening in vast areas of the country. And the fact that Mozambique is now entering its annual cyclone season creates the risk of a double crisis, with the most vulnerable being the most severely affected,” he said.
Taylor added that access to the most basic services – such as drinking water, health, nutrition and education – is now “uncertain or unsafe” in most of the affected areas, and in these conditions, he stressed, “children face greater risks of disease, disruption to learning and protection risks, particularly girls and adolescents”.
“Waterborne diseases and malnutrition are a lethal combination. Even before the recent floods, nearly four in ten children in Mozambique suffered from chronic malnutrition, and the new disruption to food supplies, health services and care practices now threatens to push the most vulnerable into a dangerous spiral, including risks of acute malnutrition and severe acute malnutrition, the most lethal form,” he warned.
As an “urgent” response, the representative said that Unicef, together with the Mozambican Government and other partners, is working to assess needs and begin distributing essential supplies to the most affected children and families, while also working to restore the most “critical” services, including access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, health services, education and child protection.
Further north, in Sofala province, Unicef has provided water, sanitation and hygiene supplies to the four most affected regions, enabling the treatment of contaminated water at community and household level, already reaching at least 13,000 families,” he said, reiterating, however, that the threat to children is increasing.
According to Guy Taylor, with river basins above alert levels, heavy rains continuing in some areas and the start of the cyclone season, “the number of children and families affected is likely to increase further in the coming days and weeks”, while damaged roads and infrastructure are making access to affected communities “increasingly difficult”.
According to the UN agency, for children in Mozambique, what happens in the coming days will determine not only how many will survive this emergency, but how many will be able to recover, return to school and rebuild their futures.
The total number of deaths during the rainy season in Mozambique, with figures from 1 October to 19 January and already covering the current flood period, has risen to 114, with six people missing, 99 injured and almost 680,000 affected, according to the latest data from the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD).
According to INGD data, 677,831 people have been affected so far, with 11,367 houses partially destroyed and 4,910 completely destroyed.
