Mozambique: Recent Palma attacks affect 50,000 people

ANKARA

Violence in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province has left thousands of people homeless, and over 50,000 people affected, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report Thursday.

“People have scattered in many different directions since the recent attacks in Palma, Cabo Delgado province. Survivors are traumatized. They’ve had to flee leaving behind all their belongings and families have been separated,” Antonella Daprile, WFP's country director in Mozambique, was quoted as saying in the report.

“We met a young mother who fled the violence with her two daughters. They walked for three days without food or water and have no idea whether the rest of their family survived,” Daprile added.

WFP said while many people have fled Palma to Pemba on boats, “thousands are still trapped in Palma and Quitunda.”

The UN organization appealed for $82 million which are urgently needed to respond to the crisis and support the vulnerable victims, largely women and children.

It cited a recent survey by UNICEF and WFP which reveals that about 21% of displaced children under the age of five, and 18% of host children are underweight.

“Conflict continues to drive hunger in northern Mozambique as more than 950,000 people now face severe hunger," WFP said.

It added that it is in the process of scaling up its response in the affected areas with plans to help some 750,000 internally displaced people (IDP) "and vulnerable members of the local community across the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Niassa, and Zambezia.”