The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Mozambique: life-saving aid for one million people could be cut without funding boost
One million desperately vulnerable people in northern Mozambique could see their life-saving support cut, without additional funding to help them, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.
“WFP is delivering food assistance to one million people affected by the conflict in northern Mozambique, but unfortunately, we have a very serious funding shortage,” said WFP Regional Communications Officer for Southern Africa, Antonella d’Aprile. “WFP will be forced to suspend life-saving assistance to one million people by February if we don’t receive funds now.”
The warning comes amid intensifying extremist violence in Cabo Delgado, which is the most food-insecure province of the south African nation, where 1.15 million people already face “crisis” or “emergency” hunger levels.
Despite the widespread violence, WFP has been providing emergency assistance to one million displaced people - including in previously inaccessible areas such as Macomia, Muidumbe, Nangade, Palma, and Quissanga. But it has had no option but to cut rations in recent months.
“The attacks started five years ago in Cabo Delgado, which is the most food-insecure, malnourished and extremely poor province in Mozambique,” Ms. d’Aprile explained, in reference to the “unprecedented” targeting of districts close to the provincial capital, Pemba and in neighbouring Nampula province.
“People are leaving their villages, leaving absolutely everything behind,” the WFP officer continued, adding that the number of displaced people in the north has quadrupled to nearly one million people in the last two years.
Humanitarians are also worried that the funding shortage will likely coincide with the peak of the lean season. “This means that food is more expensive because farmers are waiting for their harvest,” according to WFP’s Ms. D’Aprile, who also noted that February tends to be when Mozambique is ravaged by devastating cyclones. “Without WFP food assistance, one million vulnerable, uprooted people will be on the verge of hunger in Mozambique,” she stressed.
Essential humanitarian action also includes working to scale up resilience-building activities among vulnerable communities. WFP does this by supporting 44,000 people in recovering land and production in Cabo Delgado. The UN agency also provides nutrition supplements to prevent and treat malnutrition among children under the age of five, in addition to pregnant and nursing women.
In most remote areas of the north, the WFP-run UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) is the only air service available for aid workers. In December 2020, following escalation of violence and the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency opened an airbridge connecting inaccessible areas in the north. Since then, UNHAS has transported more than 10,000 humanitarian personnel and 70,000 kilogrammes of humanitarian cargo.
All of these activities are now at risk because of a lack of funding, WFP has stressed. It needs $51 million to continue delivering life-saving assistance to one million people and provide much-needed services.
“WFP will strive to maintain life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable groups - such as those most undernourished, malnourished children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers - but there are many whom we might not be able to assist, unless additional funding is received urgently,” Ms. d’Aprile told journalists.
ends
STORY: Northern Mozambique Hunger Alert - WFP
TRT: 1 mins 49s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 11 November 2022 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Medium shot, press room with panel of speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH), WFP Regional Communications Officer for Southern Africa, Antonella d’Aprile: “WFP is delivering food assistance to one million people affected by the conflict in northern Mozambique, but unfortunately, we have a very serious funding shortage.”
- Medium -wide shot, press room with journalists and TV screen showing WFP speaker.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH), WFP Regional Communications Officer for Southern Africa, Antonella d’Aprile: “The attacks started five years ago in Cabo Delgado, which is the most food-insecure, malnourished and extremely poor province in Mozambique.”
- Medium shot, press room showing host, journalists and TV cameras to rear.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH), WFP Regional Communications Officer for Southern Africa, Antonella d’Aprile: “WFP will be forced to suspend life-saving assistance to one million people by February if we don’t receive funds now as I speak.”
- Medium shot, journalists typing on laptops.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH), WFP Regional Communications Officer for Southern Africa, Antonella d’Aprile: “February in Mozambique is also the peak of the lean season. This means that food is more expensive because farmers are waiting for their harvest.”
- Medium shot, press conference participants.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH), WFP Regional Communications Officer for Southern Africa, Antonella d’Aprile: “Unfortunately, February is also our agitated cyclone season, so without WFP food assistance, one million vulnerable, uprooted people will be on the verge of hunger in Mozambique.”
- Medium shot, journalists checking mobile phones, WFP speaker shown on TV screen to rear.
- Medium shot, TV camera operators filming.
- Close-up, journalists’ hands, laptops.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , OHCHR , UNFPA , UNOG , UNHCR , WHO
Yemen’s humanitarian crisis growing by the hour amid spike in displacement
Yemenis displaced by renewed fighting have described fleeing for their lives amid shelling and gunfire, aid agencies reported on Friday, while highlighting the dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in the country and in Djibouti, where thousands have sought shelter.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office issued on Friday a report documenting a shocking pattern of sexual violence amid Russia’s full-scale armed attack on Ukraine.
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WFP
‘Super El Niño’ and converging crises worsen hunger in South Sudan and across the region - WFP
South Sudan’s hunger crisis is becoming increasingly catastrophic as violence, extreme weather and dwindling aid leave millions without enough food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
In war-torn Gaza, a growing number of women-headed households face “impossible decisions” every day, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes and still-scarce resources, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk made the following remarks to the Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar at the 63rd Human Rights Council.
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today delivered an update on the global human rights situation to the 63rdsession of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Repeated attacks on humanitarian warehouses put vital medical aid at risk in Ukraine - WHO
A new airstrike overnight damaged one of the main warehouses used by the UN health agency to store humanitarian medical supplies in the Kyiv region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. This is the third attack to affect a WHO-used storage in the last three months.
2
2
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WMO
Powerful El Niño heightens extreme-weather risks through 2027, as countries brace for impact - WMO
Fuelled by extraordinarily warm waters across the tropical Pacific Ocean, the El Niño climate pattern is expected to intensify in the coming months. Forecasters are almost certain that it will persist through February next year, with unusually warm conditions expected across the globe.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , IFRC , UN WOMEN , WHO
Nepal flood deaths near 1,000 as those spared struggle to survive – UN humanitarians
With the death toll in Nepal’s catastrophic flash floods inching towards 1,000, rescue workers are facing harsh conditions while survivors lack access to food, safe water and health care, humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNDRR , IFRC , WHO
Nepal: Flooding disaster “not over” as humanitarians work around the clock
While search and rescue efforts continued Friday following flash floods and mudslides in northern Nepal, UN humanitarians are taking stock of the devastation amid concerns over more flooding to come.