MOZAMBIQUE: According to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. has contributed $116 million to help Mozambique mitigate the effects of food insecurity. Uzra Zeya, the United States Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, disclosed this in a statement yesterday.
This happened a week after USAID gave the capital city of Uganda, Kampala, more than $592 million for humanitarian aid targeted at displaced individuals and other people impacted by the ongoing incursions across the continent of Africa. The assistance also arrived a week after Somalia received an approximately $1.2 billion donation to help millions of citizens there.
The statement claims that the most recent financing includes $106 million in humanitarian assistance from USAID to support partners in addressing humanitarian needs brought on by the devastation caused by Tropical Cyclone Gombe and the ongoing conflict in northern Mozambique.
According to USAID, the conflicts in Mozambique have caused the displacement of about 800,000 people. However, Tropical Cyclone Gombe has made the difficulties people in Mozambique’s northern region are experiencing more complicated.
As stated in the statement, USAID’s partners in the country will provide food and nutritional assistance, including health care, water, sanitation, hygiene, agriculture, and other critical relief needs.
Further, the recent funding brings U.S. humanitarian assistance for Mozambique to $167 million in the Fiscal Year 2022, including $158 million from USAID.
The statement reads further: “A portion of this new funding for Mozambique is part of the $2 billion in humanitarian assistance announced by President Joe Biden on June 27 as a part of the supplemental package intended to assist countries in Africa and worldwide whose people are suffering due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine.”
“It will immediately address the direst impacts of the global food security crisis through direct food assistance and related health, nutrition, protection, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene services in countries with high levels of acute food insecurity, reliance on Russian and Ukrainian imports, and vulnerability to price shocks.”
The funding also includes $10 million, subject to congressional approval, in development assistance for Mozambique. The funding is part of President Biden’s $760 million in supplemental funds to combat the effects of high food, fuel, and fertilizer prices.
With this additional funding, USAID will help smallholder farmers put climate-smart farming practices into use through better access to improved seeds and by cultivating a wider range of nutrition crops.
In order to support regional agribusinesses in creating products, experimenting with new business models, and using cutting-edge technology that will enable them to reach local consumers efficiently, USAID will also introduce a challenge fund.
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