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Herald Reporters
THE United Nations yesterday applauded Government’s response to the effects of Cyclone Idai and pledged to help mobilise financial resources of around US$294 million to ensure food securing in communities.
Speaking after meeting President Mnangagwa in Harare yesterday, UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and deputy emergency relief co-ordinator, Ms Ursula Mueller, said she came to review the situation with regards to the two natural occurrences.
“Zimbabwe requires US$294 million for Cyclone Idai and drought mitigation,” said Ms Mueller, who arrived in the country last week on a seven-day assessment visit.
“The UN systems will help the Government to address the humanitarian needs and root causes to mitigate the effects of climate change. We met with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and ministers here today (yesterday) and discussed on how we can assist the affected people.
“Our visit in Zimbabwe comes at a critical juncture as the country recovers from the effects of Cyclone Idai and continues to suffer from severe drought and economic challenges. We came here to see for ourselves how climate change affects the country.”
At the weekend, Ms Mueller visited Chimanimani where she met some victims of Cyclone Idai, and toured damaged residential sites where she witnessed some of the response activities by UN agencies in the selected areas.
“We discussed with the President how to move now from the response to the life-saving assistance to recovery assistance for the people we met in Chimanimani,” she said.
“We applaud Government-led efforts to the response of this disaster and we re-affirm the UN commitment to stand with the people of Zimbabwe.”
Ms Mueller said many African countries were grappling with effects of climate change, yet they did not contribute to the climate crisis facing their countries.
She arrived in Southern Africa on Wednesday last week on a seven-day assessment visit of the response to the effects of Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi.
An estimated 270 000 people have been affected by Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe and urgently need food and shelter.
Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo said Government was still appealing for assistance to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“There will be several meetings of our appeal with the UN agencies,” he said.
“We are reassessing our appeal not only for Cyclone Idai consequences, but also of the drought that has engulfed the whole country.
“So, our appeal now will have a lot of buy-in from the UN systems and I am sure that bilateral countries will start to believe that the story we are telling them is real.”
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