The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the scale and pace of the emergency caused by the January floods exceeded available resources, calling for the mobilization of $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 and national and local authorities to strengthen coordination systems and support the delivery of vital assistance, adding that it has so far only been able to support 90,000 of the 620,000 people identified as needing safe food.
“The scale and pace of this emergency exceed available capacity. The addendum to the 2026 National Humanitarian Flood Response Plan seeks to mobilize $187 million to provide urgent assistance to approximately 600,000 people affected by the floods,” it stressed.
Of the total amount, $65.5 million will be used to strengthen food security and livelihoods, particularly in the more than 70 shelters still operating in the country, mainly in the south, and $28.4 million will be used to provide shelters and tents.
Updated data from the National Institute for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction (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, Timor-Leste, Switzerland, Norway, Japan, and China, as well as neighboring countries, have already announced and 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.
In total, it is estimated that around 1,200 kilometers of medium-voltage lines have been affected or submerged, as well as around 900 kilometers of low-voltage lines and 94 transformer stations. Despite the extent of the damage, losses are still estimated at around US$4.9 million.
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 rain 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.
