Mozambique’s National Institute of Social Action (INAS) said that it would support 580 families that had been excluded from support because of Covid-19, following protests in the centre of the country, an official source told Lusa.
“These families had not been listed in the current process,” because they had received support previously, after cyclone Idai, but the government considers “timely their claim,” said Abdul Razack, INAS delegate in the central province of Sofala.
Surveillance actions are underway in Dondo district, where the families’ complaints arose.
Thousands of people protested on the 11th outside the district government building against the exclusion from the lists of the assistance subsidy due to Covid-19, alleging a lack of transparency in the registration process.
The support in question is expected to benefit about 186,000 vulnerable families in the centre of the country, in the districts of Dondo and Beira, with a monthly subsidy of 1,500 meticais (€20) for six months.
These direct monthly transfers are expected to benefit 1.1 million families (35% of the poor population living in urban areas) for six months.
The Mozambican government is also responding to the impacts of Covid-19 across the country with additional payments to some 600,000 families benefiting from social programmes who will receive three additional months of payments.
Mozambique has had 1,903 deaths and 150,201 cases of Covid-19, of which 97% have recovered and 44 hospitalised.