Africa Climate Week: Farmers get ahead of hunger as extreme weather sears southern Africa
Story | 1 September 2023
Emergency
Conflict in northern Mozambique is entering its seventh year. Since 2017, it has displaced over 1 million people (the International Organization for Migration, Displacement Tracking Matrix, November 2022). From July 2021, security forces from the Southern African Development Community and Rwanda were deployed to support Mozambique’s security forces. This enabled intermittent humanitarian access in districts such as Palma, Muidumbe and Quissanga. However, violence has intensified in 2022, with unprecedented attacks in districts close to its capital, Pemba, and in neighbouring Nampula province, forcing more people to flee their villages. Prolonged and new displacements disrupt livelihoods – including agricultural production –, limit access to basic social services, and exacerbate protection risks, particularly for women and girls. With growing and protracted needs, the World Food Programme (WFP) is conducting a vulnerability assessment to ensure assistance reaches those most in need in the context of limited resources. WFP is also scaling up resilience-building activities among vulnerable communities, targeting approximately 160.000 people in 2023 with a wide range of agricultural and income-generating activities in Cabo Delgado. Across all its programmes, WFP integrates malnutrition treatment and prevention work to improve diets and address the underlying causes of malnutrition and poor development in the country.