UNICEF Situation Report MOZAMBIQUE March 2007

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1 UNICEF Situation Report MOZAMBIQUE March 2007 Major Developments Major Developments Explosion of Weapons Depot in Maputo On 22 March, fire at a weapons depot, located approximately 15 kilometers away from Maputo, caused massive explosions that were felt across the city. Latest figures provided by the Government of Mozambique indicate that 96 people were killed and over 400 injured. 14 barrios in the vicinity of the weapons depot were showered with shrapnel as a result of the explosions. Preliminary reports indicate that hundred of homes have been damaged in the residential areas around the weapons depot. The Ministry of Education and Culture is reporting that 18 schools were affected by the explosions. Damage assessment planned over the weekend of will determine if conditions are safe for children to return to these schools. Preliminary reports also indicate that children have been separated from their families in the confusion of the explosions are seeking assistance at police stations. These children are being cared for by the Ministry of Women and Social Welfare. National authorities are providing homeless families with tents and household kits furnished by the Mozambican Red Cross. Psychosocial support is being provided to victims at hospitals, health centres and the morgue in Maputo. The Mozambican Red Cross has been asked to coordinate all private and bilateral offers of support for the victims. UNDP experts are working with the Ministry of Defense on the identification, clearance and disarmament of unexploded ordinance (UXO) that rained across the 14 barrios near the weapons depot. A de-mining and UXO expert has arrived in Maputo on 24 March to provide additional technical assistance. Support will include the development of strategies for safer weapons storage. UNICEF/Protection Cluster Response The Mozambique Red Cross, the Ministry of Women and Social Action and members of the Mozambique IASC Protection Cluster, including Save the Children and UNICEF, are meeting throughout the weekend to develop a strategy to respond to the protection needs of children affected by the tragedy. Identification, registration and reunification of unaccompanied minors will be a key priority. National and international protection partners are working with the Ministry of Women and Social Action and the Ministry of Interior to establish systems and procedures to meet the needs of unaccompanied minors especially working with the Police Force and the Mozambique Red Cross. Psychosocial support for children affected by the weapons depot emergency is another priority being addressed by national and international Protection Cluster partners. Support to address the trauma of the situation will be provided at the centre sheltering unaccompanied children, as well as through schools when education activities resume. Protection partners are also developing strategies for Mine and UXO Risk Awareness as the possible presence of unexploded ordinance poses grave risks for children and adults in areas near the weapons depot. The strategy will include the distribution of child friendly mine awareness and unexploded ordinance materials in affected areas; the launch of a radio and television awareness raising campaign; and mine and unexploded ordinance education in all schools in the 14 affected barrios where unexploded ordinance may be found. A training is taking place for activists at UNICEF on 26 March on UXO Risk Awareness issues. 1) Tropical Cyclone Favio Needs Assessment The Government in Vilanculos officially declared an end to the immediate humanitarian response phase in cyclone affected areas on 10 March. With the transition to the rehabilitation phase underway, focus is being placed on the development of strategies and action plans for the rehabilitation of infrastructure and essential services damaged or destroyed by the cyclone. UNICEF Response 1

2 UNICEF has completed the coordination and distribution of NFIs for the cyclone response, in collaboration with the INGC. Particular support is being provided in the area of education; a UNICEF Education Officer is working with the local authorities to monitor the use of supplies for the rehabilitation of education facilities. UNICEF has also been providing technical support to the INGC on the development of strategies for the rehabilitation phase, which are being developed by working groups established in the areas of infrastructure, water and sanitation, social services and agriculture. The consolidated rehabilitation strategy, including inputs from all four working groups, was to have been finalized this week. The Provincial Government of Inhambane and UNICEF will undertake a rehabilitation programme for schools and health facilities affected by Cyclone Favio. The initiative is part of a larger 2,000,000 Euro programme funded by the EU to meet the needs of disadvantaged schools and health centres across the province. UNICEF, in agreement with provincial and the EU, is developing a plan of action to determine which health centres and schools will be supported, with a particular focus on cyclone affected areas. 2) Zambezi Floods Needs Assessment The UNICEF teams based in Caia (Sofala province), Mopeia (Zambezia province) and Mutarara (Tete province) are continuing to work with Government, UN and NGO partners to monitor the deliver of basic services in accommodation centres and to meet medium term needs in flood affected provinces. The priority concerns according to the INGC are sanitation and hygiene/health education. The preparations for resettlement are continuing, under the leadership of provincial Governments, with the process of plot demarcation on-going in each of the affected areas. Focus is shifting to planning for the provision of basic services in resettlement centres. In most cases, resettlement centres are being created near existing accommodation centres; as a result the continuation and extension of existing services such as health and education can serve to meet the needs of resettled populations until more permanent facilities are established. More sustainable water and sanitation alternatives are being explored in resettlement areas, including the drilling of boreholes and the construction of household latrines. Monitoring of the situation in accommodation centres will continue until the resettlement process is completed. UNICEF Response WASH* In all affected provinces, UNICEF is continuing to work with Government and NGO partners to ensure complete coverage of centres with WASH interventions, in line with the geographical division of labour. At the request of the National Director of the INGC, UNICEF organised a WASH cluster meeting in Caia on 22 March to review with all cluster partners how best to address the issue of sanitation in the centres. Cluster partners agreed to step up sanitation efforts by doubling the number of latrines currently available in accommodation centres. It was also agreed that hygiene promotion activities would be further strengthened and more sustainable water sources would be established in both accommodation and resettlement centres through the drilling of new boreholes and the rehabilitation of existing water sources. Communication and community mobilisation activities on hygiene promotion supported by UNICEF and cluster partners are ongoing in accommodation centres in the four flood affected provinces, including video projections on the promotion of good hygiene practices by multimedia mobile units and sessions on hygiene promotion undertaken by community theatre groups. Communities are creating their own hygiene promotion vehicles such as local theatre groups and community radio initiatives to make hygiene promotion interventions more sustainable. While the process of resettlement is ongoing, in addition to supporting ongoing implementation of water and sanitation interventions, UNICEF will focus on working with partners to assess the need to rehabilitate existing boreholes and handpumps and drill new boreholes in the areas adjacent to resettlement centres as they are being identified. UNICEF has already begun meeting with the provincial water authorities to discuss the drilling of boreholes in resettlement areas; the Governor of Zambezia Province has already authorized the drilling of new boreholes after a three day visit to affected areas in the province. 2

3 Health* UNICEF is continuing to work with cluster partners to support the local health authorities in monitoring the status of the health situation in the centres, identifying appropriate referral facilities, and conducting activities including epidemiological surveillance, cholera prevention (no cases have been registered), drug distribution, immunisation, malaria spraying and the distribution of ITNs. To date, UNICEF and partners have distributed approximately 77,000 ITNs. While no cases of cholera have been reported to date in the flood affected areas, vigilance has been heightened due to reports of cholera in other parts of the country. UNICEF has provided support to district health officials in Caia to establish a disinfectant site at the ferry crossing from Zambezia Province to Sofala Province as a precaution against cholera transmission. With support from UNICEF, child to child radio programmes and broadcasts by community radios on cholera prevention are being broadcast in Portuguese and local languages until mid-april in all affected provinces. While the process of resettlement is ongoing, UNICEF will focus on supporting the local health authorities and other partners to monitor the health situation and needs, to consolidate and disseminate information and to maintain sufficient supplies in health facilities in affected areas. Nutrition* UNICEF is continuing to support the local health authorities and other partners in ongoing activities under the supplementary feeding programme in affected areas, which is underway in the districts of Caia, Marromeu and Chemba in Sofala province, Mopeia and Morrumbala in Zambezia province, Mutarara in Tete province and Tambara in Manica province. The current available figures indicate that an estimated children have been screened under the programme across the four flood affected provinces; 816 of them were found to be moderately malnourished, of which 817 have been supplemented with BP5, 63 severely malnourished children have been referred to hospital for appropriate case management, 8,594 children have received de-worming and 7,786 children have received Vitamin A supplementation. While the process of resettlement is ongoing, UNICEF will focus on supporting the local health authorities and other partners to conduct ongoing nutritional surveillance and to continue implementing activities under the supplementary feeding programme. It is anticipated that the emergency supplementary feeding programme will need to continue for at least three months, following which the needs will be reassessed. The programme will continue in those three districts in which it was already operational before the floods, while the focus of UNICEF and partners will shift towards interventions targeting chronic malnutrition (such as infant and young child feeding, the promotion of breastfeeding and nutrition education). UNICEF is also providing technical support to the planning of the VAC food security and nutrition assessment, particularly in terms of liaison with the Ministry of Health on the planned anthropometric component of the assessment. The assessment will be led by SETSAN with support from WFP and UNICEF. While it will be a national vulnerability assessment, purposive sampling will be carried out in flood and cyclone affected areas. Training for the VAC is scheduled for 2 to 6 April; VAC teams are expected to carry out the assessment field work between 9 and 14 April; and the analysis and report writing is anticipated to take place between 16 and 27 April. Education* While the process of resettlement is ongoing, UNICEF is supporting the local education authorities and other partners to monitor the quality of education provided. This will include support to School Council members to enable them to mobilise communities to send their children to school, particularly girls and OVC, and to keep them there; support to School Directors to monitor the quality of education provided and ensure that they practice participative school management methods; support to teachers through training in child friendly learning-teaching methods; and support to monitoring and support supervision, to ensure sufficient level of quality in the education provided. Teacher trainings on engaging school clubs on hygiene promotion and malaria prevention are being carried out by OXFAM with UNICEF support. 3

4 Protection* Monitoring is ongoing of activista protection activities in accommodation centres after the completion of trainings on psycho-social support, protection against abuse and exploitation and general protection issues. UNICEF and Protection Cluster partners will meet with Police officials in Maputo to advocate for the continued presence of police in accommodation centres, and the strengthening of police capacity to deal with protection issues. In relation to the ongoing mine risk education activities conducted by Handicap International with the support of UNICEF, a total of 17 mine risk education agents have been trained in Chemba, Marromeu and Caia and training is in progress in Mutarara (for a total of 9 agents from Tete, 1 from Zambezia and 3 from Manica). The distribution of mine risk education materials and community sensitisation is ongoing. HALO Trust reports that, based on on-going assessments, it is highly unlikely that landmines still pose a threat in the Zambezi River basin as all mines have already been cleared from these areas. Confirmation of this information will follow a strict ongoing certification process. With UNICEF support, a total of 4,000 basic emergency kits and 60 recreation kits have been sent to all affected areas and their distribution is ongoing. While the process of resettlement is ongoing, UNICEF is supporting local authorities and other partners to monitor the protective environment in accommodation and resettlement centres. Efforts are focusing on ensuring a continued police presence, an appropriate psycho-social environment for children and ongoing support for the most vulnerable. Community committees responsible for the protection will be established. Programme Communication UNICEF is working with partners on implementing a longer term strategy for programme communication initiatives. Discussions are underway to expand theatre group activities by creating new groups at the local level, and ensure more coverage of the most remote accommodation centres. Local theatre groups can help guarantee the sustainability of programme communication initiatives in the long run. Agreements have been reached with local radio to continue radio interventions on hygiene promotion and malaria prevention for another three months. Monitoring of programme communication activities is ongoing; a micro-questionnaire has been developed to evaluate the different programme communication interventions in order to assist loner term planning. * Please note that cumulative information on the status of supply distribution by sector is available upon request. Inter-Agency Collaboration and Key Partnerships An IASC Humanitarian Country Team Meeting was chaired by the Resident Coordinator on 23 March. Issues discussed included the need to finalize the terms of reference for the Mozambique IASC Country Team and the need to further integrate the Clusters with the INGC/CENOE Working Groups. The IASC Humanitarian Country Team also agreed on a schedule for the Real Time Evaluation mission that will be arriving in Maputo on 30 March, ensuring that the mission field visits did not overlap with the field work of the VAC assessment. The current list of cluster leads and participants is provided below: Cluster for Cluster lead Cluster participants emergency response Logistics WFP UNICEF, UNDP, IOM, IFRC, Africare, CAFOD, CEDES, Care, Jacana, CUAMM, Mozambican Red Cross, EC, Food for the Hungry International, Humedica, German Agro Action, LWF/ACT, Samaritan s Purse International Relief, Save the Children Alliance, UNOCHA, USAID, World Vision, HelpAge International, Kulima, Oxfam, Italian Embassy, INGC 4

5 Food Security WFP/FAO IRD, SCA, World Vision, World Relief, CEDES, ADMR, FHI, German Agro Action, CARITAS, IMVF, Mozambican Red Cross, Kulima Telecommunications WFP UNICEF, Télécoms Sans Frontières, Swedish Rescue Services Agency, Oxfam (representing NetHope) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene UNICEF Oxfam, Samaritan s Purse International Relief, Médecins sans Frontières, International Relief and Development, Food for the Hungry International, Concern, IFRC, Mozambican Red Cross, Spanish Red Cross, World Vision, German Agro Action, USAID Nutrition UNICEF SCA, WHO, FAO, WFP, CARE, World Vision, Food for the Hungry International, World Relief, Samaritan s Purse International Relief, UNAIDS, MSF Health WHO Medicus Mundi, World Vision, NAFEZA, TRIMODER, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNAIDS Education Protection Emergency Shelter Save the Children Alliance / UNICEF Save the Children Alliance / UNICEF Mozambican Red Cross/IFRC Early Recovery UNDP All Partners World Vision, Concern, UNESCO, Africare, Samaritan s Purse International Relief, Instituto da Comunicação Social, Action Aid World Vision, UNFPA, UNESCO, WFP, Africare, Handicap International, Samaritan s Purse International Relief, Action Aid, Concern, Halo Trust, ASADEC, ASVIMO, Mozambican Red Cross, Helpage International, Terre des Hommes, Rede Came, Rede da Criança and Food for the Hungry International Habitat for Humanity, German Agro Action, Samaritan s Purse International Relief, UNICEF, Kulima, IOM, UNDP, UNHABITAT For more information, please contact: Leila Pakkala Representative Tel: lpakkala@unicef.org Thierry Delvigne-Jean Communication Officer Tel: tdelvignejean@unicef.org Melissa Fernandez Emergency Officer Tel: mfernandez@unicef.org Olívia Wills UNICEF Emergency Situation Centre Tel: owills@unicef.org 5