Maputo, 14.04.2016 – On April 12th Mozambique issued a "red alert" and Malawi declared a state of national disaster in response to severe food shortages affecting millions of people. The weather phenomenon known as “El Niño” has caused the worst drought since the 1980s across southern and eastern Africa.
CARE, CONCERN, Oxfam and Save the Children, members of the COSACA consortium of aid agencies in Mozambique, are responding to the urgent food and water needs of more than 100,000 people, but warn that available resources are insufficient to address the scale of the needs.
“The Red Alert is an important recognition of the severity of the situation in Mozambique. The failure of the current harvest in many parts of country has made 1.5 million people face hunger. There are simply not enough resources to provide needed emergency assistance to everyone. We urge donors to respond to this declaration by providing the resources necessary for the response” says Marc Nosbach, country director of CARE Mozambique.
Over 10 million people across the southern African region will need food aid in the coming year, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). In addition, more than 10.2 million people in Ethiopia and 4.7 million in Somalia are depending on food assistance.
Media contact:
CARE: Reshma Khan, [email protected] or call +254722911880