Cyclone Idai: Death toll at 686, about 3 million adversely impacted
Hundreds of thousands of people are in need of food, water and shelter after Cyclone Idai battered Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. UN chief Antonio Guterres is calling on the international community to fund appeals to aid the cyclone-hit region.

MOZAMBIQUE
Cyclone Idai made landfall the night of March 14 near the port city of Beira, bringing heavy winds and rains. Two major rivers, the Buzi and the Pungue, burst their banks, submerging entire villages and leaving bodies floating in the water.

Number killed: 447
Number injured: 1,500
Houses damaged or destroyed: 33,600
Crops damaged: 500,000 hectares
Number affected: 1.85 million

ZIMBABWE
On March 16, the storm hit eastern Zimbabwe, where it flattened homes and flooded communities in the Chimanimani and Chipinge districts.

There has been a lot of damage. Many homes have been left without roofs.

Number killed: 179, according to government, which says 329 people are still unaccounted for. The U.N. migration agency puts the death toll at 259.
Number injured: 200
Number displaced: 16,000 households
Number affected: 250,000

MALAWI
Before it arrived, the storm brought heavy rains and flooding to the lower Shire River districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje, in Malawi’s south. The rains continued after the storm hit, compounding the misery of tens of thousands of people.

Number killed: 60
Number injured: 672
Number displaced: 19,328 households
Number affected: 868,895

Appeal

The United Nations is also making an emergency appeal for $282 million for the next three months to help Mozambique start recovering.

Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday called on the international community to “quickly and fully” fund humanitarian appeals to ramp up UN agencies’ response to the cyclone, “one of the worst environmental disasters experienced in Africa.”

The UN funding for Mozambique will be used to provide water, sanitation, education and restoring the livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of displaced people, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said on Monday.

He said separate appeals will be made shortly for Zimbabwe and Malawi, also hard-hit by the cyclone.

Lowcock said funds for cyclone victims are starting to come through, including $29 million from the United Kingdom, but are far outstripped by the needs.

Race against time

UNICEF head Henrietta Fore just visited Mozambique’s ravaged port city of Beira and said “it’s a race against time” to help the displaced and prevent disease.

Authorities in Mozambique say that with a key road open to the badly damaged city of Beira, conditions on the ground improving and more international help arriving, vital aid to those hit by Cyclone Idai should now flow more freely.

Cyclone Idai’s death toll has risen above 750 in the three southern African countries hit 10 days ago by the storm, as workers rush to restore electricity, water and try to prevent an outbreak of cholera.

In Mozambique, the number of dead has risen to 446 while there are 259 dead in Zimbabwe and at least 56 dead in Malawi for a three-nation total of 761.

The death toll is “very preliminary,” said Mozambique’s environment minister, Celso Correia, who said it is expected to rise.

The US military will join the number of international aid groups assisting in providing food and medical care to those affected by the massive cyclone, one of the worst natural disasters in southern Africa’s recent history. Turkey has also sent aid.

South Africa, Tanzania and India were the first countries to provide humanitarian aid to Cyclone Idai victims in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. South Africa has also provided relief materials, choppers, sniffer dogs along with a rescue team to rescue displaced victims.

See photos below.

Photo credit: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images/Twitter

v0njay:
#PrayForMozambique

sureteeboy:
What a sad story. So far so good, we've never seen a Nigerian yeyebrity tweet about praying for Mozambique. But if this had happened in France or in another developed country. They'll start tweeting Nonsense like their prayers are even needed in the first instance