The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) reported that since January, it has mobilized $5 million to mitigate the consequences of the floods that have affected the provinces of Maputo and Gaza in southern Mozambique in recent weeks.
Quoted by Lusa, the entity explained that these funds were used to provide shelter and emergency assistance to displaced populations and resulted from foreign donations, noting that more than 100,000 people were distributed among the 110 accommodation centers that were set up.
Last week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that the scale and pace of the emergency caused by the January floods exceeded available resources, calling for the mobilization of US$187 million for urgent assistance.
In a report with data up to February 3, the agency said that severe and persistent flooding had affected large parts of the country, particularly in the south and center. “Rivers overflowed, communities were displaced, and homes, schools, health facilities, water systems, and roads were damaged or destroyed.”
The United Nations agency reiterated that it is working with humanitarian partners, national and local authorities to strengthen coordination systems and support the delivery of vital assistance, adding that it has only been able to support 90,000 of the 620,000 people identified as needing safe food so far.
Updated data from INGD indicate that since the beginning of the rainy season in October, 844,000 people have been affected across the country, with 153 deaths and 254 injuries reported. Given the seriousness of the situation, the government declared a national red alert on January 16, and there are currently 77 accommodation centers in operation, housing 76,251 displaced people.
Since January 7, 229 health facilities, 316 schools, and five bridges have also been damaged. In the agricultural sector, the floods affected 440,842 hectares of crops, of which 275,405 were reported as lost, affecting 314,780 farmers. An estimated 408,115 head of livestock, including cattle, goats, and poultry, have also been killed.
The European Union, the United States, Portugal, Angola, Spain, Germany, East Timor, Switzerland, Norway, Japan, and China, as well as neighboring countries, have already sent emergency humanitarian aid.
Recently, the government estimated that at least US$644 million would be needed to repair the damage caused by heavy rains over the past 20 days, which resulted in flooding in several regions of the country, particularly in the central and southern areas.
Among the main losses, damage to approximately three kilometers of National Road Number 1 (N1), the main highway connecting Mozambique from north to south, stands out, a situation that has exacerbated the difficulties of movement of people and essential goods.
At the end of last year, the Executive approved the national contingency plan for the 2025-26 rainy season, valued at 14 billion meticais. However, it admitted that it only had 6 billion meticais of the necessary funds available.
Mozambique is in the middle of the rainy season, a period that has been marked by warnings of heavy rains and strong winds, mainly in the central and southern parts of the country, with the authorities taking action to anticipate floods in those regions.
The country is considered one of the most severely affected by climate change, facing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones. In the last rains, between 2024-25, Mozambique was hit by cyclones Chido, Dikeledi, and Jude, which killed at least 313 people, injured 1,255, and affected more than 1.8 million.
Extreme events caused at least 1,016 deaths in Mozambique between 2019 and 2023, affecting around 4.9 million people, according to data from the National Statistics Institute.
