After the severe tropical storm „Idai“, rivers in the center of Mozambique’s helpers have burst so dramatically that „inland seas“ have emerged.
For flights over the disaster area, a frightening picture, said the World Food Program (WFP). The biggest challenge now is to reach the needy despite the floods.
Meteorologists warned that it should rain heavily in the region until Thursday. Two large rivers have already formed „miles of inland seas,“ warned WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel in Geneva. The organization plans to support up to 600,000 people in the country in southern Africa shortly. In the particularly affected port city of Beira and its surrounding area, hundreds of thousands of people continued to be without electricity on Wednesday.
The „massive disaster“ may affect millions of people in Mozambique and neighboring Zimbabwe and Malawi, said the head of the UN Emergency Relief Agency (OCHA), Jens Laerke. „We need every logistical support we can get,“ he said. A Red Cross spokesman said local helpers were talking about places as high as six meters underwater. The organization warned that around 400,000 people could be temporarily homeless.
The four-by-five „Idai“ cyclone struck land on Friday night with gusts of wind up to 160 kilometers per hour from the Indian Ocean near the Mozambican city of Beira. This was followed by storm surges and massive floods. Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi said on Monday that there could be at least 1,000 casualties.
Mozambique is hit again and again by heavy cyclones. In 2007, for example, the cyclone „Favio“ damaged some 130,000 houses and forced tens of thousands of people to flee. As a result of the cyclone «Eline», nearly half a million people were homeless in 2000 and around 700 died. According to a UN index, Mozambique is one of the ten poorest countries in the world. The government is likely to be overwhelmed with tackling the emerging humanitarian catastrophe. Many relief organizations are therefore planning to expand their operations locally and have called for donations.
