The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) reported that in January this year it provided nutritional assistance to a total of 18,800 children under the age of 5 affected by natural disasters and armed conflicts in Mozambique.
According to a report quoted by Lusa, the organisation said that in the same period it treated 182 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition and administered vitamin ‘A’ supplements to another 6,650.
‘Unicef is addressing malnutrition among at-risk groups in communities affected by conflict and cyclones. In addition, 186 emergency health kits were delivered to respond to the humanitarian crisis caused by extreme events, covering around 80,000 children in eight districts of Nampula and more than 40,000 people in Cabo Delgado.’
According to the document, Unicef mobilised 190 integrated mobile health brigades to 171 of the most vulnerable communities in those provinces, guaranteeing minimum services for 17,000 children under the age of 5.
‘We provided immunisation services for children, prenatal and postnatal care for more than 5,600 women and treatment for more than 2,700 adult men. We also helped almost 3,000 children survive violence and contributed to the restoration of 12 schools.’
In its ongoing response to the drought, Unicef helped more than 1900 children in Sofala province in the centre of the country, where 449 children were vaccinated against measles and more than 1200 received vitamin A supplements.
The United Nations estimates that food insecurity aggravated by El Niño has reached ‘unprecedented levels’ in Mozambique
Mozambique is considered one of the countries most severely affected by global climate change, facing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, but also prolonged periods of severe drought.
Official figures indicate that between December 2024 and March 2025, the country has already been hit by three cyclones, which, in addition to destroying thousands of homes and public and private infrastructure, have also caused more than 175 deaths in the North and Centre regions.
According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), between 2019-23, extreme events such as cyclones and storms caused at least 1,016 deaths and affected more than 4 million people.
On the other hand, since October 2017 Cabo Delgado, a gas-rich province, has been facing an armed rebellion, which has caused thousands of deaths and a humanitarian crisis, with more than a million people displaced.
In 2024, at least 349 people died in attacks by Islamic extremist groups in the province, an increase of 36%, according to data from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, an academic institution of the US Department of Defense that analyses conflicts in Africa.
