Update: At least four dead and 37 injured as Cyclone Chido crosses Mozambique

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Update: At least four dead and 37 injured as Cyclone Chido crosses Mozambique

3:10 CAT | 16 Dec 2024

Photo: Jornal Ikweli

Unicef also reports the destruction of boats and roofs, fallen trees

At least four people died and another 37 were injured following the passage of Cyclone Chido through Cabo Delgado and Nampula provinces, organizations on the ground say.

Three deaths were recorded in Cabo Delgado and one in Nampula, both in northern Mozambique, the latter reported on Sunday by the ActionAid non-governmental organization.

“At Pemba Hospital, health professionals recorded 37 injured people and three deaths – one a child killed by the collapse of a wall,” reads a report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), to which Lusa had access today.

The document also reports the destruction of boats and roofs, and fallen trees.

“A tree fell on our office, causing damage to the structure of the building. Fortunately, we didn’t lose anything, neither computers nor files (…), but the roof of the building collapsed,” Carlos Almeida, coordinator of Portuguese development NGO Helpo, told Lusa from his office in Cabo Delgado.

According to Almeida, people in Pemba were “very scared”. Some infrastructure was destroyed, including hotels near the coast.

Intense Tropical Cyclone Chido, with a scale of three out of five, hit the coastal area of northern Mozambique on Saturday night, according to the National Emergency Operations Centre (CNOE).

The same service indicated that the cyclone weakened to a severe tropical storm but continued to batter the two northern provinces with “very heavy rains of over 250 mm/24 hours, accompanied by thunderstorms and very strong gusty winds”.

“This scenario presents a high risk of urban flooding and erosion in the cities of Pemba, Nacala and Lichinga, as well as in low-lying and riverside areas of the Muaguide, Megaruma and Lúrio river basins,” the CNOE information details.

Around 200,000 customers in Nampula and Cabo Delgado were left without electricity by Cyclone Chido, Electricity of Mozambique (EDM) announced on Sunday, and at least three flights to the northern region were cancelled by Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM).

Mozambican authorities had said on Thursday (12-12) that around 2.5 million people could be affected by Cyclone Chido in the provinces of Nampula, Cabo Delgado and Niassa, in the north, and in Zambézia and Tete, in the centre of the country.

Mozambique is considered one of the countries most severely affected by climate change, cyclically facing floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs from October to April.

The 2018/2019 rainy season was one of the most severe in Mozambique’s history: 714 people died, including 648 victims of Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, two of the worst ever to hit the country.

According to official government figures, heavy rains and the passage of Cyclone Freddy in the first half of 2023 caused 306 deaths, affecting more than 1.3 million people and destroying 236,000 homes and 3,200 classrooms.

Source: Lusa