UN food agency says nearly one million going hungry in Mozambique

Almost one million people are facing severe hunger in northern Mozambique where hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee an insurgency, the UN food agency said on Tuesday.

“As the security situation continues to deteriorate, more than 950 000 people in the north of Mozambique are now facing severe hunger,” Tomson Phiri, a spokesman for the World Food Programme, told a briefing in Geneva.

Militants have escalated attacks in Mozambique’s northernmost province Cabo Delgado in the past year, murdering villagers, fighting the army and seizing towns.

One South African is among the dozens of people killed during the attack in Palma in March.

The SADC Troika on Politics, Defence and Security has recently resolved to provide technical assistance to Mozambique to aid its fight against the insurgency.

Unpacking outcomes of the recent SADC Troika meeting with Fredson Guilengue: