Mozambique still recovering from 2019 cyclones

One year on from when Cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique and set off a series of unprecedented climate-related disasters, 2.5 million people, almost half of them children, remain in need of humanitarian assistance.

More than 3,000 children under five have been diagnosed with life-threatening severe acute malnutrition (SAM) after harvests were washed away in floodwaters.

These children are proof that the victims of the climate crisis are foremost the poor and the very young.

Deborah Nguyen, the World Food Programme's (WFP) Southern African spokesperson said people are struggling to rebuild from the cyclone and crops have been destroyed by heavy rain in recent months.

"Because of Mozambique's location and because it's already one of the poorest countries in Africa, we can see that climate change is impacting very badly the poorest communities and it will keep happening," she said.

Although Mozambique hardly contributes to global warming, the country has experienced multiple climate-related emergencies in the past 12 months.

On March 14, 2019, Cyclone Idai hit the port city of Beira and neighbouring towns in the central Sofala and Manica Provinces, leaving entire areas, including agricultural land, under water.

Just six weeks later, Cyclone Kenneth hit the northern province of Cabo Delgado, bringing winds of over 200 kilometres per hour.

Meanwhile, the south of the country has experienced a severe drought, with further dire consequences for agriculture and food security.

All these shocks have exhausted families' resilience and decimated their livelihoods.

It is estimated that 1.6 million people in the country don't have enough food to eat.

The WFP's Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) initiative addresses immediate food needs through cash, voucher or food transfers, while at the same time it promotes the building or rehabilitation of assets that will improve long-term food security and resilience.

However, the agency has warned limited funding is threatening to halt rehabilitation projects for Idai victims this year.

With one of the lowest Human Development Index in the world (number 180 of 189 countries), more than 46% of the population in Mozambique live below the national poverty line.

This level of poverty makes it challenging for families to build resilience by themselves, and each year, with new and stronger shocks, it is becoming harder and harder for them to recover.