1,000 dead as Mozambique is hit by major floods

cde.news desk 19 March 2019, 07:15 · 1 min read

epa07446406 Inhabitants of Chiluvi, a village in central Mozambique, walk along a flooded and muddy street after Cyclone Idai and Floods that hit the region, in Nhamatanda, Mozambique, 13 March 2019 (Issued 18 March 2019). Chiluvo, together with Nhamatanda, Sofala, illustrates the tragedy that is experienced throughout the central region of Mozambique, especially in the provinces of Sofala and Manica, where there will already be between 73 and 84 confirmed deaths, according to official figures, leaving thousands in need of relief for remaining isolated in a flooded region. EPA-EFE/ANDRE CATUEIRA BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE

More than 1,000 people were feared dead in Mozambique four days after a cyclone slammed into the country, submerging entire villages and leaving bodies floating in the floodwaters, the nation’s president said.

“It is a real disaster of great proportions,” President Filipe Nyusi said.

Cyclone Idai could prove to be the deadliest storm in generations to hit the impoverished southeast African country of 30 million people.

It struck Beira, an Indian Ocean port city of a half-million people, late Thursday and then moved inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi with strong winds and heavy rain. But it took days for the scope of the disaster to come into focus in Mozambique, which has a poor communication and transportation network and a corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy.

Via Euronews

Topics Floods Mozambique