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| - Mozambique said Wednesday it had received less than a quarter of the funding needed to rebuild after two deadly cyclones pummelled the country last year. A post-disaster assessment led by the World Bank and United Nations determined that Mozambique needed $3.2 billion to recover from cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which hit the country in March and April 2019. However it has received just $706 million of $1.2 billion pledged at an international donors conference in May 2019, according to Public Works Minister Joao Osvaldo Machatine. "So far, agreements and memoranda have been signed with our cooperation partners worth $706 million," Machatine said ahead of the first anniversary of cyclone Idai. It was the strongest storm on record to hit southern Africa, and along with cyclone Kenneth killed nearly 700 people and affected several million others. International aid organisations say some communities are still living in makeshift shelters and are vulnerable to climate change-related disasters. Recent floods have displaced some communities again and ruined efforts to replant more than 700,000 hectares (1.7 million acres) in lost crops. "Cyclones Idai and Kenneth hit communities that were already facing challenges from recurring floods and droughts, ongoing economic instability, non-resistant building construction, poorly maintained and protected water structures and assets, and communities heavily reliant on subsistence agriculture," said Rui Alberto Oliveira of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Mozambique. Robertino Jorge, a spokesman of ActionAid Mozambique warned that two million people face food shortages due to recent flooding and drought. str/ts-sn/wai
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