Day: October 22, 2022

Highlights

UNICEF responded to conflict-driven displacement in Nampula province, including by providing health kits and tents, delivering lifesaving supplies for SAM treatment, and providing MHPSS services for children and caregivers.

UNICEF is supporting health services in piloting the treatment of acute malnutrition at community level (CMAM) in Cabo Delgado and Nampula, screening 40,770 children under five.

UNICEF is supporting the Ministry of Health for the COVID-19 vaccination campaign for more than 4.9 million children (12-17 years old) to be reached.

Accelerated Learning Programmes in Chiure and Metuge districts of Cabo Delgado reached nearly 40,000 people so far.

UNICEF along with partners provided sanitation facilities to 2,799 households in Cabo Delgado.

Situation in Numbers

520,579 children displaced in need of humanitarian assistance (IOM June 2022)

1,500,000 people in need in the north (OCHA August 2022)

946,508 internally displaced people (IOM June 2022)

302,000 people in hard-to-reach areas (OCHA August 2022)

Funding Overview and Partnerships

UNICEF’s 2022 Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal seeks US$98.8 million to sustain and expand the provision of life-saving services for women and children in Mozambique affected by conflict, Cyclone Gombe, and Tropical Storm Ana. UNICEF has received over $16.1 million in 2022 including generous contributions from the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, in support of UNICEF Mozambique’s humanitarian response to COVID-19, the United Kingdom, the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Republic of Korea, who provided support for UNICEF’s response in the aftermath of Tropical Storms Ana and Gombe, and the World Bank, the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), and the Governments of Italy, Norway and USAID who provided support for UNICEF’s conflict-related activities in northern Mozambique. The 2022 HAC has a funding gap of 69 per cent. UNICEF has also utilized core resources and nexus-related funding for response activities totalling $11.7 million to meet urgent humanitarian needs and additional earmarked resources for the polio response. The remaining funding gap means UNICEF is unable to respond to existing needs, and planning for future displacements and storms, are not possible; especially in hard-to-reach areas.

Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs

Armed violence triggered new waves of displacement in northern Mozambique during September. The beginning of the reporting period saw the spread of attacks by non-state armed groups (NSAGs) into Nampula province, triggering further displacement and rising needs in the districts of Erati and Memba. Following the attacks, reports indicated that a total of 47,000 people (8,020 families) and 18,500 people (3,700 families) were displaced in Erati and Memba districts, respectively. The displaced populations stayed primarily with host communities, though some had started to return to places of origin at the end of the reporting period, once attacks subsided.

In Cabo Delgado province, attacks and clashes were also reported in several districts during September, including Nangade, Muidumbe, Macomia, Quissanga, Metuge and Chiure. Such incidents and fear of attacks triggered continuous localized displacements in several areas. Between 31 August and 3 October 2022, a total of 32,936 people were reportedly on the move in Cabo Delgado, the majority of which were children. This figure also reflected large return movements to Mocímboa da Praia district, with reports of thousands of new arrives per week.

Persistent shocks continue to impact humanitarian needs, including food security and nutrition. In September, the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) indicated that food insecurity remains a challenge, with IPC Phase 3-Crisis level outcomes is expected to continue through January 2023 in the drought-affected areas of southern Mozambique, areas in Nampula affected by floods and tropical storms, and conflict-affected areas of Cabo Delgado.

Meanwhile, disease outbreaks also remained a concern. The poliovirus outbreak is also still active in the country. Currently, there are 7 cases of wild polio virus (WPV1) in Mozambique, all deriving from Tete province. Furthermore, there have been 5 cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (CDVP2) and 8 cases of CDVP1 in 2022.

Source: UN Children’s Fund

Guinea’s ruling junta has agreed to restore civilian rule in two years, after facing sanctions over its original plan for a three-year transfer of power, the West African bloc ECOWAS said Friday.

West African leaders had last month suspended Guinea from the bloc and imposed sanctions on a number of individuals following a military coup.

“In a dynamic compromise, experts from ECOWAS and Guinea have jointly developed a consolidated chronogram (timetable) for a transition spread over 24 months,” ECOWAS said in a report following a technical mission to the country published on social media by the junta.

The country’s military leader, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, said in an address broadcast on state television that the timetable would take effect from Jan. 1, 2023.

Leaders from the Economic Community of West African States must approve the timetable before it is officially implemented, with the bloc due to hold a summit before the end of the year.

The bloc had given the junta one month to present a “reasonable and acceptable” timetable for the return to civilian rule, an ultimatum that theoretically expires this weekend.

Diplomatic links between the two sides have remained and Guinean authorities have reiterated their readiness to cooperate with ECOWAS, which had dispatched its mission to Conakry to work out a compromise schedule.

Acceptable

The poor but mineral-rich West African state has been under a military government since a September 2021 coup that ousted president Alpha Conde after more than 10 years in power.

Colonel Doumbouya has since appointed himself president and vowed to restore civilian rule within three years.

Several West African officials have indicated that a two-year transition period would be acceptable.

A similar timeframe was agreed between ECOWAS and the junta in neighboring Mali after months of wrangling.

Under the terms of that agreement, reached in July, the Malian military was to hand over power in March 2024. By that time, they would have been in power for more than three-and-a-half years since overthrowing the elected civilian president in August 2020.

In recent years, ECOWAS has witnessed a succession of military coups in West Africa, in 2020 and 2021 in Mali, in 2021 in Guinea and twice this year in Burkina Faso.

In the face of military authorities, the bloc has duly increased its summits and country missions while ramping up pressure to shorten the transitional periods back to civilian rule.

Four dead in clashes

The transition compromise was reached after demonstrations broke out Thursday in the capital Conakry, with young protesters clashing with security forces and opposition group the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution claiming four civilians had been killed.

The FNDC — outlawed by the junta — had called for the protests to demand a quick return to a civilian-led government and the release of all prisoners detained for political reasons.

In response, Guinea’s top prosecutor on Friday called for a crackdown on the organizers and participants of a giant anti-government protest in which he said six security personnel had been wounded while the opposition said four civilians had been killed.

The FNDC identified three of the people killed as Thierno Bella Diallo, Boubacar Diallo and Thierno Moussa Barry. It said 20 people suffered gunshot wounds while many others were arrested.

Justice Minister Alphonse Charles Wright confirmed their deaths in a statement on Friday, but said the causes “remain to be clarified by autopsy.”

He ordered prosecutions, without commenting on the alleged perpetrators.

Source: Voice of America

The World Food Program warned Friday it is only a matter of time before Somalia is hit with a full-blown famine and people start dying in droves.

The United Nations food agency said it has been able to keep famine at bay in Somalia by massively increasing food assistance to millions of acutely hungry people.

WFP Somalia Deputy Country Director Laura Turner said international donations have allowed increased aid, reaching nearly 4.2 million people with food and cash relief.

Speaking from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, she said the WFP is delivering food and nutrition support to record numbers of people. She said beneficiaries include half a million malnourished children and mothers with malnutrition treatment services.

She said the increased food aid so far has prevented Somalia’s hunger crisis from reaching a point of no return. However, she warned Somalia is not yet out of danger.

“We are in a desperate race against time,” she said. “As we discussed a month ago, if the situation continues to worsen, and we are expecting that it will because we are currently in the rainy season, and we have not seen the rains materialize. Or the relief assistance does not continue to increase to meet the growing needs, then famine is projected before the end of this year.”

The U.N. predicts famine is likely in the Baidoa and Burhakaba districts of the country’s Bay region. It forecasts up to 6.7 million people across the country will face crisis-level food insecurity before the end of the year.

Turner said the WFP is now reaching more than double the numbers of vulnerable people with aid that it was reaching earlier this year. She said food assistance alone will not prevent loss of life.

“Disease, poor hygiene, dehydration — they are all equally concerning,” she said. “We work very closely on an integrated response to make sure that sanitation, water access, health services are also included in what we are doing so that we can address the drivers of mortality.”

Turner said in her 20-year humanitarian career she has never experienced a looming catastrophe of such proportions. She called soaring malnutrition rates horrifying, saying severely acutely malnourished children are at particular risk of dying from hunger and disease.

The World Health Organization reports half of Somalia’s children, some 1.8 million, are suffering from this condition.

Source: Voice of America