Africa-Press – Mozambique. The non-governmental organisation (NGO) Save the Children estimated on Tuesday that more than 230,000 children “have been cut off from education so far this year” due to the impacts of floods and extreme rainfall, which have already killed 239 people this rainy season.
“Children in southern Mozambique are once again on the front lines of the climate crisis. Back-to-back flooding has destroyed their schools and robbed them of their education, putting their futures at risk, and the cyclone season has just begun. Thousands of children and families are already reeling from previous cyclones and climate emergencies,” said Ilaria Manunza, National Director of Save the Children in Mozambique, quoted in the NGO’s statement.
Save the Children estimates that more than 430 schools have been affected by the floods, with more than 840 classrooms completely destroyed by strong winds and floodwaters, noting that their impacts have forced the government to use schools as shelters for displaced families.
It also warned of an increase in the number of children who do not attend school in Mozambique each year due to the impacts of flooding, “raising the risk of long-term learning loss and permanent dropout.”
The official start of the 2026 school year in Mozambique was scheduled for 30 January, but the government has postponed it to this Friday, 27 February, due to widespread flooding across the country.
However, “some schools still require major repairs, cleaning, and disinfection, so it is unclear if all students will be able to return,” the NGO’s statement reads.
According to Save the Children, more than half of those affected by the floods during the current rainy season are children, with the organisation indicating that severe and widespread flooding in southern Mozambique has exacerbated the emergency, especially after the impact of Cyclone Gezani, which mainly affected the province of Inhambane in the south of the country.
According to information consulted by Lusa in the database of the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD), updated early this morning, 868,593 people have been affected in the current rainy season, corresponding to 200,739 families, with 12 missing and 331 injured.
This figure represents four more deaths than Monday’s update.
The January floods alone caused at least 27 deaths – affecting 724,131 people – and the passage of Cyclone Gezani in Inhambane on 13 and 14 February caused four more deaths and affected 9,040 people, according to updated INGD data on the rainy season.
Since October, the Mozambican disaster management institute has activated 149 accommodation centres, which have housed 113,478 people, of which 41 are still active, with at least 33,905 people.
Source: Lusa
