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Food aid boost for Mozambique
07/06/2002 12:37 - (SA)
Maputo - The US and Italian governments have donated about 16 000 tons of food aid to drought-stricken Mozambique in response to recent appeals by the authorities in the southern African state.
The United States is donating about 10 000 tons of maize, while Italy has responded with 6 000 tons of rice, Joao Zamissa, chief planner at the Mozambique Institute for Natural Disaster Management (INGC), said in an interview with AFP.
The rice is already being distributed in southern and central Mozambique, while a ship carrying the US aid is expected at Maputo habour on Friday or Saturday, Zamissa said.
This year's drought has affected the southern provinces of Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane and parts of the central provinces of Manica, Sofala and Tete, he said.
In nothern Mozambique "there are some isolated pockets of hunger, notably in Nampula, Cabo delgado and Niassa provinces, mainy due to crop pests," he said.
The coastal province of Zambezia also had some problems because of the effect of last year's floods.
"In all, we are talking of about 500 000 people needing assistance at the moment against the 800 000 foreseen in the government's contingency plan," he said.
Zamissa said the US and Italian aid comes on top of UN World Food Programme (WFP) food-for-work plan which has been in place for the past five months.
The current drought, also affecting neighbouring Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, is far less severe than the 1991-1992 drought, which in combination with civil war, affected about four million Mozambicans. - Sapa-AFP
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