The UN recently reported on Cyclone Idai which triggered a “massive disaster” in southern Africa affecting hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. Cyclone
“This is shaping up to be one of the worst weather-related disasters ever to hit the southern hemisphere,” Clare Nullis, from the UN’s weather agency, told the BBC on Tuesday.
Mozambique’s government said 84 people had died and 100,000 needed to be urgently rescued near Beira. Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi called it “a humanitarian disaster of great proportion”.
“The rocks hit us as we tried to get out of the kitchen where we had run to hide, but my four-year-old child didn’t make it. The other one was already taken when the rains destroyed the bedroom where he slept. God has his ways, but I don’t know why this. It hurts,” Liwayo told Aljazeera she lost her two children when a rockfall and mudslide enveloped her home just beneath Skyline as she cradled her only surviving child.
In Zimbabwe, at least 20,000 houses have been partially damaged in the south-eastern town of Chipinge, 600 others were completely destroyed.
Winds of up to 170 kph (105 mph) and flooding swept across southeastern Africa, including Zimbabwe and Mozambique, affecting more than 2.6 million people, United Nations officials said on Tuesday.
Rescue crews were still struggling to reach victims five days later, while aid groups said many survivors were trapped in remote areas, surrounded by wrecked roads, flattened buildings and submerged villages. The Red Cross said at least 400,000 people had been made homeless in central Mozambique alone, AfricanNews Reports.
South Africa and UNICEF were among the first to start a fund raiser aimed at gathering public support for humanitarian efforts. All three affected countries have called for assistance to contain the crisis.
The European Union has meanwhile released 3.5 million euros in emergency aid for the three countries. The breakdown of the funds are as follows:
- Mozambique = 2 million euros
- Zimbabwe = 1 million euros
- Malawi = 500,000 euros
In a statement issued today, the spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his sadness at the loss of life, destruction of property and displacement of millions by the cyclonic rains and subsequent flooding.
