Mozambique: UN needs US$348 million for 2026 humanitarian plan — only a third raised

The United Nations (UN) needs US$348 million to fund its urgent humanitarian response plan for 1.1 million Mozambicans in 2026, following the conflict in the north, but has secured only a third of that amount. According to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released on Monday, the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) requires US$348 million to meet the most urgent humanitarian needs across conflict-affected districts in three northern provinces: 17 districts in Cabo Delgado, 2 districts in Nampula, and 1 district in Niassa province. The report states that the plan targets 1.1 million people, of whom 919,000 are hyper prioritised and reside in districts classified as severity level 4 in Cabo Delgado province.

It adds that, by the end of February, the programme had provided some form of assistance, including food aid, to 314,000 people, while 73,000 children had gained access to education, nutrition, and child protection services. The report said that assistance efforts had focused on districts with level-four severity needs, where 258,000 people had been reached out of a total target population of 919,000. International donors contributed US$103.6 million to the HNRP for conflict-related humanitarian programmes.

Ten per cent of the total funds for this programme were provided by United Nations agencies, 15 per cent by the Mozambican government, and the remainder by non-governmental organisations. The document stated that the funding gap was exacerbated by an additional US$187 million required to mitigate the impact of floods during the current rainy season, which claimed 300 lives and left 620,000 people in Mozambique’s southern districts in need of support.