MAPUTO, Mozambique – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up to deliver life-saving food assistance to reach 450,000 people affected by the country’s worst flooding in decades – just months after Mozambicans recovered from the worst drought in its recent history. The agency urgently requires USD 32 million for the next three months to deliver vital food and nutritional support to families reeling from flooding.
Severe flooding in central and southern Mozambique has impacted nearly 700,000 people, forcing over 100,000 into temporary accommodation centres, submerging farmland areas, and cutting off hundreds of thousands of families from food and critical services. Around 1,500 kilometres of roads are now impassable, disrupting key supply routes, and isolating vulnerable groups.
WFP is using specialized amphibious vehicles, boats, heavy-duty trucks, fixed-wing aircraft, and helicopters, to reach the impacted communities with food and nutrition assistance.
“We have the teams, logistics, and capacity to rapidly scale up to provide food and nutrition assistance to flood-affected families in Mozambique,” said Claire Conan, WFP’s Country Director in Mozambique. “However, funding shortfalls are restricting our ability to support the increasing numbers of people in need.”
Humanitarian needs in Mozambique are skyrocketing. The massive flooding has now doubled the number of crisis-affected people WFP is supporting throughout the country, but with the same resources.
“These floods are both an emergency and a threat to long-term food security,” said Conan. “Large areas of farmland have been submerged, which will affect upcoming harvests and likely lead to food shortages and higher food prices. We urge the international community to support both the immediate response and long-term food security initiatives in the country.”
While flooding has inundated the south and central parts of the country, nine years of conflict with armed insurgent groups in the north has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. WFP currently provides critical food assistance to 425,000 of the most vulnerable people affected by the conflict in the north.
Funding shortfalls have already forced WFP to reduce the number of Mozambicans it supports in the north by 60 percent compared to 2024. Without immediate funding, a further 40 percent reduction will be implemented in March, and a complete halt in assistance is expected by May.
https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-scales-food-assistance-record-floods-mozambique-leave-families-stranded
