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About 250,000 children displaced by a jihadist insurgency in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province face the risk of contracting diseases as the rainy season approaches, the UN children’s agency Unicef said.
Around 2,400 people, more than half of them civilians, have died since October 2017, when a mysterious jihadist group launched its campaign in the gas-rich province, according to a tally compiled by ACLED, an American NGO.
The government says 570,000 people have fled their homes.
“In less than two years, the children and families of Cabo Delgado have faced a devastating cyclone, floods, droughts and socio-economic difficulties related to the COVID-19 pandemic and conflict,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, in a statement released Tuesday night. .
“As conditions in the province deteriorate further, especially with the start of the rainy season, the water, sanitation and health care systems are under increasing pressure.”
UNICEF noted the risk of diarrhea, a disease that can be easily cured and prevented, but is often fatal to young children if left untreated.
Two out of every five children in the northern province already suffer from chronic malnutrition “and more cases of severe acute malnutrition are being detected among the displaced population,” the statement said.
UNICEF is requesting 52.8 million dollars (43.3 million euros) to meet the most urgent humanitarian needs in Mozambique in 2021, of which 30 million dollars would go to Cabo Delgado.
