afrol News, 7 April - The African Development Bank has approved US $ 2 million for emergency humanitarian assistance for drought and floods stricken people in Djibouti, Mozambique, Togo and Zambia.

According to the Bank statement, the grants from which each country will receive $500,000 will be used to purchase food for distribution to drought victims and the refugees, as well as victims to floods in the Southern African region.

The statement said Djibouti will use the assistance to provide food and other support to more than 55,000 drought victims in five districts of the country as well as to more than 6,000 people at the country's Ali Addeh refugee camp.

The assistance to Mozambique will go to support the government's effort in alleviating the suffering of 250,000 flood and drought affected populations mainly in Zambezia, Tete, Maputo, and Inhambane.

“The food assistance of 1,000 tons of maize to be purchased locally, will be channeled through the World Food Programme (WFP) to the affected households whose crops were damaged by the floods and drought and left without means of survival,” the bank said in the statement.

Zambia's grant is expected to supplement government efforts to alleviate the sufferings of flood-affected people in 19 districts, mainly in the country's North-western, Western, Eastern, Central and Northern Provinces.

“The flood affected 274,800 people with 7,422 households displaced. The Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU), as the mandated wing of government of Zambia, will therefore be entrusted with the implementation of the emergency relief assistance operation,” the statement said.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that floods across Southern Africa and some other parts of North Africa caused by extreme rainfall that have wrecked and caused damage to land and property still have devastating effects on thousands people displaced by floods.

The grant to Togo will provide relief to 20,000 people affected by flood in the coastal and plateau regions of the country. It will also help in the reconstruction of damaged buildings and bridges, shelter, telephone lines as well as the provision of medicines, water and transportation, including speedboats.

The US$ 2 million Emergency Humanitarian Assistance will come from the Bank Group's Special Relief Fund.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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