Frelimo calls on the Mozambican government to increase assistance to victims of Cyclone Jude

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Frelimo calls on the Mozambican government to increase assistance to victims of Cyclone Jude

11:29 CAT | 13 Mar 2025

File photo: O País

The Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) yesterday asked the government to increase assistance to citizens affected by Tropical Cyclone Jude, which hit the country on Monday and has already killed six people.

“We reiterate our appeal to the government, through the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD), to increase assistance to the affected populations and to implement security measures,” Frelimo Political Commission spokesperson Ludmila Maguni said at the end of a session of the body.

At least six people died, 20 were injured and another 9,525 were affected by Cyclone Jude in the provinces of Nampula and Niassa, in northern Mozambique, and Zambézia, in the centre of the country, according to data released today by the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD).

As of Tuesday, Jude had also affected 17,401 students, 264 teachers, 59 schools and 181 classrooms in those three provinces. The tropical cyclone entered Mozambique in the early hours of Monday, with winds of 140 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 195 kilometres per hour, Manuel Francisco, a meteorologist at the National Institute of Meteorology (INAM) in Mozambique, told Lusa.

Shortly after entering the country, the cyclone “returned to the stage of a severe tropical storm and in the next two days [Tuesday and today] it could vary between a moderate and severe storm”, the meteorologist said. Mozambique is in the middle of the rainy season, which runs from October to April, a period in which cyclones Chido and Dikeledi were already recorded, which also affected the north of the country.

The cyclones hit Mozambique between December last year and January, with the greatest impact in the provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula, affecting around 736,000 people and causing the destruction of public and private infrastructure. Extreme events, such as cyclones and storms, caused at least 1,016 deaths in Mozambique between 2019 and 2023, affecting around 4.9 million people, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Mozambique is considered one of those severely affected by global climate change, cyclically facing floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season as well as prolonged periods of severe drought.

Source: Lusa