More than 125,000 people in need of food aid in central Mozambique

More than 125,000 people need urgent food assistance in the Kaya district of Sofala province in central Mozambique due to crop destruction caused by drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon, local authorities said today.

“The situation is worrying for our communities. It is estimated that more than 125,000 people are in need of urgent food assistance, a situation that is the result of the drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon,” Nobre dos Santos, the administrator of Caia, said in statements to reporters.

Santos said the drought had destroyed thousands of hectares of corn, rice, beans and sesame crops, threatening the ongoing agricultural campaign.

“Of the approximately 800 thousand tons of various products that the district expected to produce, it received only a little more than two hundred thousand,” he emphasized.

Administrator Kayi called on farmers to invest in farming in low-lying areas where the water has not yet completely dried up and to avoid selling all agricultural produce to avoid facing starvation.

Mozambique’s National Institute of Meteorology (INAM) recently said El Niño could worsen the lack of rain already occurring in the country.

In late September last year, Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi called on the population and regions to prepare for the predictable impacts of the El Niño phenomenon in the country in the coming months, predicting above-normal rainfall and drought outbreaks.

Heavy rains and Cyclone Freddy killed 306 people in the first quarter of last year, affected more than 1.3 million people in the country, and destroyed 236,000 homes and 3,200 classrooms, according to government figures.

The 2018/2019 rainy season was one of the worst in Mozambique’s history, with 714 deaths, including 648 from Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, the two largest ever to hit the country.