WFP on Mozambique crisis caused by extremist rebels

Mozambique's humanitarian crisis from the extremist insurgency in the country's north is rapidly spiraling, with more than 950,000 people in urgent need of food aid, the United Nations' World Food Programme said Thursday.

An estimated 50,000 people fled their homes amid the rebels' five-day siege of Palma earlier this month, swelling the numbers of displaced and hungry.

Many have fled to Pemba on boats, making a treacherous trip in stormy seas, and thousands are still trapped in Palma and the nearby settlement of Quitunda.

WFP said it is delivering food to those areas as well as to coastal islands.

Many of the displaced in Mozambique have been taken in by other families, who are already poor. The host families are also experiencing hunger, aid workers said.

Children are worst affected by the rising rates of malnutrition.

“There was a joint, a recent survey that we did with UNICEF, where they're accounting for a high percentage of children amongst displaced, amongst the displaced community, as well as the host community as well,” said Shelley Thakral, WFP's regional spokesperson for southern Africa.

Almost 21% of displaced children under 5, and 18% of children of host families, are underweight, according to a recent survey by UNICEF and WFP.

The rates of chronic malnutrition, which has lifelong consequences, are at an alarming 50% of displaced children and 41% of children from host communities, according to the survey.

WFP's emergency food distributions provide rations to feed a family for two weeks with supplies of high-energy biscuits, rice, pulses, vegetable oil, water, and canned foods such as sardines and beans.

In response to the growing crisis, WFP is scaling up its response, with plans to assist 750,000 internally displaced people and vulnerable members of the local community across the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Niassa and Zambezia.

WFP said that it urgently requires $82 million to respond to the crisis and support the vulnerable, largely women and children.