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  • Food Crisis Hits Southern Mozambique

    The  Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET)funded by the United States has blamed the abnormally high temperatures and late rains for the imminent food crisis in southern Mozambique and parts of the centre of the country.

    According to FEWS NET Report the agricultural season began forty days late, with just 53 per cent of planned planting in the south taking place in December.

     167,000 people benefitted from humanitrain aid in January,this resultedm in several= commmunities in the southern province of Gaza  getting out of the crisis category, whilthe Report stated that  the assistance was insufficient to change the crisis classification in other southern and central semi-arid areas.''

    It also brought to the fore the plight of of people living in the central provinces of Zambezia, Sofala, and Manica where tropical cyclone Desmond caused flooding on 21 January just as the Report maitained that "the storm caused localized flooding, damaged infrastructure, and affected over 1,300 hectares of crops".

    ''In addition, about 6,000 people were displaced from some peri-urban areas of Beira and Dondo cities in Sofala and in parts of Chinde district in Zambezia. Mozambique's relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC), has created transit centres to provide shelter, food, and water and sanitation.''

    ''Much of southern Mozambique (in particular, the interior of Gaza and Inhambane provinces) is naturally semi-arid. However, this year the weather pattern has been disrupted by the El Nino phenomenon. El Nino is an anomalous warming of the surface waters in parts of the Pacific, which has a major impact on weather patterns worldwide. In southern Africa, it frequently results in severe droughts, '' the report concluded.