Mozambique on course to achieve child mortality target

The Mozambique government is confident it will achieve its child mortality target.

Authorities in the African nation want the death rate among under-fives to be two-thirds lower than the 1990 level by next year.

According to Aiuba Cuereneia, the planning and development minister, the country has been making good progress in working towards this target in recent years.

Indeed, he said the measures taken thus far have delivered "encouraging" results, such as the introduction of the Presidential Initiative on Mother and Child Health in 2008 and the Campaign for the Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa a year later.

As a result, the government is in "no doubt that Mozambique will certainly meet this target in 2015", Mr Cuereneia stated.

He added that the issue of child mortality is a priority for the government, as it believes pregnancy and childbirth should be a happy occasion, rather than a period of uncertainty and pain.