12 March 2001

Maputo, Mozambique: More than 20 UN Volunteers in Mozambique have stepped up efforts to assess emergency needs and coordinate relief efforts in the country's central region where an estimated 80,000 people have been displaced by ongoing flooding, the Bonn-based United Nations Volunteers (UNV) announced today.

Three UN Volunteers serve as UN emergency coordination advisers in the Beira, Tete and Manica provinces through the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Two UNV emergency assessment specialists recruited for Beira and Quelimane work directly with the emergency coordination centres in those provinces. All coordination is in conjunction with the Government's National Institute for Disaster Management, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Locally-recruited national UN Volunteers attached to the World Food Programme partner local NGOs in regions flooded by the Zambezi River to examine immediate needs assessment and manage the distribution of food and other relief supplies.

The United Nations Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator Ross Mountain noted during his visit to Mozambique last week that Mozambicans are in the best position to serve as UNV relief workers, especially in camps for displaced persons.

UNV-Mozambique carried out similar relief activities a year ago when UN Volunteers were transferred from their normal projects to help WFP with food distribution at refugee camps in the Macia District south of the flooded Limpopo River.