MAPUTO (Halbeeg News)- At least 120 people have died and scores others are missing in Mozambique and neighbouring Zimbabwe on Sunday after tropical cyclone Idai barrelled across the two southern African nations with flash floods and winds.
Officials said the death toll had risen to 62 in the centre of the country, while Zimbabwe said 65 people were killed in affected eastern areas after the cyclone tore across the region on Friday and Saturday.
In Zimbabwe, eastern Chimanimani district was the worst-hit part of the country, where houses and bridges were washed away by flash floods when the storm slammed the area.
The most affected areas are not yet accessible, while high winds and dense clouds have hampered military rescue helicopter flights.
Mozambique’s Environment Minister Celso Correia gave AFP the country’s updated number of deaths in Beira and Dondo districts, but warned: “We will certainly end with a higher toll.”
“I think this is the biggest natural disaster Mozambique has ever faced. Everything is destroyed. Our priority now is to save human lives,” he said at Beira international airport, which reopened Sunday after being temporarily closed because of cyclone damage.
The majority of those unaccounted for are thought to be government workers, whose housing complex was entirely engulfed by raging waters. Their fate is currently unknown because the area is still unreachable.
Soldiers on Sunday helped rescue nearly 200 pupils, teachers and staff who had been trapped at the school in Chimanimani.
Tents have been set up to provide shelter for those affected by the cyclone and scores of villagers have made their way to the relief area, some having trekked for up to 20 kilometres to reach safety.
Roads have been swallowed by massive sinkholes, while bridges were ripped to pieces by the flash floods, according to the AFP photographer.
The United Nations in Zimbabwe said that nearly 10,000 were affected by the cyclone.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who cut short a visit to Abu Dhabi over the cyclone, has declared a state of disaster in the affected areas.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said its “projections indicate at-least 1.7 million people were in the direct path of the cyclone in Mozambique, and 920,000 people were affected in Malawi. Thousands more are potentially impacted by events in Zimbabwe where assessments are ongoing”.
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