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MAPUTO – The European Union (EU) will send in the coming days a second cargo plane with humanitarian aid for another 20,000 people affected by the floods in Mozambique, it was announced on Monday, after the arrival of the first shipment in Maputo.
“Another plane with similar cargo will arrive in Mozambique in the coming days, with the aim of supporting around 20,000 people,” announced the EU ambassador to Mozambique, Antonino Maggiore, at the cargo terminal of Maputo airport.
On Monday, a first humanitarian plane arrived in the country carrying 88 tons of essential supplies financed by the EU, which will be distributed to those affected by the floods by teams from the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) in Mozambique.
The supplies, valued at 552,000 dollars (465,500 euros), include health, water, sanitation and hygiene materials, nutrition, education and child protection, as well as tents that will be used to create “safe spaces for children”, temporary health clinics and other essential services in the areas most affected by the floods.
The goods that arrived in Maputo are expected to benefit directly or indirectly 30,000 to 50,000 people, “many of them children who are facing conditions of great vulnerability,” said the European diplomat, after the delivery of the donation to the Mozambican authorities.
“We are also coordinating with the Member States, I have already mentioned Portugal, but also Spain, in terms of managing priorities in the water sector. And, as I said, we are in contact with Brussels for the arrival of specialists,” he added.
Maggiore added that the ongoing EU aid is only the beginning, given the needs that lie ahead: “But I wanted to highlight this, that we have already made 950,000 euros available. And I hope this is only the beginning (…). It is clear that the crisis will last and we have many effects that we have to manage, so, with Brussels, we are looking at what more we can do.”
At the ceremony to receive this humanitarian aid, Mozambique’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Maria Manuela Lucas, stressed that the EU was the first to mobilize support for the floods, on the ground since January 16.
More than 150,000 homes were flooded in Mozambique in this month’s floods, as well as almost 230 health units and more than 360 schools, according to the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD).
The INGD data also refer to 45 injured and four missing as a result of these floods in less than 20 days, at a time when hundreds of families remain stranded, awaiting rescue, especially in southern Mozambique.