A week after Cyclone Chido passed over Mozambique, the toll continues to worsen. There are now at least 94 deaths, according to a new situation update released on Sunday December 22 by the Institute for Risk and Disaster Management in this southern African country. The previous report showed 76 deaths.
The total count of nearly 670 injured has not changed since the day before in this country, one of the poorest on the planet, plagued last year by the worst drought in a century in southern Africa, according to the World Food Program.
The cyclone, which also devastated the small French archipelago of Mayotte, where the very provisional toll is currently 35 dead, also caused the destruction of more than 110,000 homes, according to a new inventory. Particularly virulent winds, with gusts recorded at « environ 260 km/h » and rains of “250 mm in four-four hours” ravaged the province of Cabo Delgado (north) where more than 500,000 of the 620,000 people affected by the consequences of the storm are concentrated.
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The presidential candidate of the historic ruling party, Daniel Chapo, whose proclaimed victory caused an unprecedented post-electoral crisis with 130 deaths in the Portuguese-speaking state, was visiting the affected areas on Sunday. Whoever is to be inaugurated president on January 15, if the Constitutional Council approves the results by Monday, called on public television “all districts” to give “food, clothing”. “Even if we use them, our brothers need them”he urged.
Fear of disease spread
Shelter, food, hygiene kits and mosquito nets are “identified as the most urgent needs for the affected population”according to a press release released Friday by the International Organization for Migration. Faced with the extent of the disaster, the Mozambican government declared two days of national mourning, Friday and Saturday.
If the provisional figures remain lower than the “hundreds” of deaths feared by France in Mayotte, the United Nations Children's Fund fears the “spread of diseases such as cholera, malaria, diarrhea through water”who are “particularly dangerous for children”Guy Taylor, head of the UN agency in Mozambique, explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
After passing over Mayotte and Mozambique last weekend, the depression, which lost a lot of intensity as it plunged into the African continent, continued its course on Monday in Malawi, where a final report recorded 13 deaths and nearly 30 injured.
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