The World Bank will provide 520 million meticals (7.4 million euros) for the construction of various infrastructures in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, the National Fund for Sustainable Development announced today.
“We have the first funding window with a budget of 400,000 dollars (368,000 euros) per district. The main activities in the first window have to do with health, education, infrastructure (…) Window two of funding is for community support, totalling 90,000 dollars (83,000 euros).
“We have a total of 300 communities to support,” said Edgar Augusto, coordinator of the National Fund for Sustainable Development (FNDS), the government organisation responsible for the Rural Resilience Project in Northern Mozambique (MozNorte).
He was speaking during the sixth session of the project’s executive board in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique.
The funds will be used mainly to build hospitals, roads and schools in the districts of Montepuez, Ancuabe, Metunge and Mecufe, all in Cabo Delgado province.
“We want to encourage MozNorte to continue with the project because, with it, we are already feeling our hope consolidated,” said the governor of Cabo Delgado, Valige Tauabo, on the same occasion.
MozNorte aims to improve the lives of vulnerable communities and manage natural resources, especially in rural areas, focussing on those displaced by the armed conflict that has plagued Cabo Delgado province since 2017.
Since then, the province has faced an armed insurgency with attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
After several months of relative normality in the affected districts, Cabo Delgado province has seen new movements and attacks by rebel groups over the last few months, which have limited circulation to some points on the few tarmac roads that give access to several districts.
The insurgency has led to a military response since July 2021, with support first from Rwanda, with more than 2,000 troops, and from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts near natural gas projects.
Lusa