MAPUTO: The World Bank has approved a $100 million grant for Mozambique to upgrade its urban infrastructure, the global lender said on Friday.
The grant is the latest investment to flow to the impoverished southern African nation, which has been struggling with an insurgency in its gas-rich region that has worsened the humanitarian crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Militant attacks in gas-rich Cabo Delgado province, near the border with Tanzania, began in 2017. The violence gathered pace in 2020, with insurgents seizing key towns for brief periods and hitting military and other key targets.
In October the World Bank gave Mozambique an initial $100 million to help fund its coronavirus response.
In early November the European Union (EU) agreed to provide Mozambique with 100 million euros ($116.30 million) in coronavirus-related aid.
The country has so far recorded more than 16,000 positive cases of the infectious respiratory disease, with 136 deaths.
The United Nation’s World Food Program (WFP) has said at least $4.7 million per month alone was needed to assist those internally displaced by the fighting in the north.
Mozambique’s economic position, in addition to the pandemic and the insurgency, has been hampered by the hidden debt crisis and two cyclones, Idai and Kenneth, that rocked the country in 2019.
“This investment will ultimately contribute to harness the role of (the capital) Maputo as the country’s economic powerhouse by investing in urban infrastructure and services, while supporting critical reforms to ensure that urbanization in Maputo can contribute to economic growth, poverty reduction, and structural transformation” the World Bank’s country director for Mozambique, Idah Z. Pswarayi-Riddihough, said in a statement.
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