Pemba, Mozambique, July 10, 2025 (Lusa) - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has invested over €42.6 million in rebuilding more than 30 infrastructure facilities that rebel attacks since 2017 damaged in Cabo Delgado, officials announced on Thursday.
“To date, UNDP has invested more than $50 million United States dollars (€42.6 million) to support the implementation of the Cabo Delgado Reconstruction Programme (PRCD) through the rehabilitation and equipping of more than 30 public infrastructure facilities,” said Cabo Delgado Governor Valige Taubo.
He said the money had been invested in rebuilding infrastructure in the districts of Palma, Mocímboa da Praia, Quissanga, Macomia, Muidumbe and Nangade, promising that “they will hand it over to the respective district governments in the coming days.”
The governor of Cabo Delgado was speaking in Pemba, the provincial capital, where the UNDP handed over ten vehicles and 15 tricycles to the local government to help rebuild Cabo Delgado, a province that has experienced insurgency since 2017.
United Nations partners, such as Japan and the European Union, contributed the vehicles and are supporting Mozambique in reconstructing districts that terrorists previously destroyed.
“These vehicles will facilitate the work of teams on the ground, especially in the most remote areas,” said the United Nations resident coordinator in Mozambique, Catherine Sozi, after handing over the vehicles to the provincial government and the mayor of Pemba.
Sozi said the vehicles would strengthen the mobility of state institutions and monitor reconstruction work in areas previously affected by terrorist attacks in that province.
Since October 2017, the gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado has faced an armed rebellion with attacks that movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State have claimed.
The latest major attack took place on 10 and 11 May 2024, at the district headquarters of Macomia, with around a hundred insurgents looting the town, causing several deaths and heavy fighting with the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces and Rwandan military personnel supporting Mozambique in the fight against the rebels.
In 2024 alone, Islamic extremist groups killed at least 349 people in northern Mozambique, an increase of 36% over the previous year, according to a study released by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS), an academic institution of the US Department of Defence.
RYCE/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
