Construction of the largest school in Cabo Delgado province, with capacity for 4,500 students, has been at a standstill for two months due to the suspension of USAID activities, decided by US President Donald Trump, the Agência de Informação de Moçambique reported .
‘The work has really been paralysed. It’s at around 60, 65 per cent. And we’re waiting for an official announcement,’ said Cabo Delgado’s provincial director of education, Ivaldo Quincardete.
The Maringanha Secondary School, in the city of Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado, opened in June 2023, with 36 classrooms for 4,500 students, with an investment of more than 200 million meticals financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
‘If USAID doesn’t continue, there are bona fide partners who are keen to complete the work,’ said Ivaldo Quincardete.
The halt in the construction of the school, which is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and the largest to be built in the province in the last 50 years, came in January, following the US President’s order to freeze all USAID-funded projects for 90 days.
In January, the Trump administration began dismantling the US development agency USAID, which had an annual budget of 3.42 trillion meticals (42.8 billion dollars) and which alone represented 42 per cent of humanitarian aid worldwide.
