Mozambique: Cyclone Chido death toll rises to 34 – INGD

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Mozambique: Cyclone Chido death toll rises to 34 – INGD

2:41 CAT | 17 Dec 2024

Photo: INGD

At least 34 people died in Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa, as intense tropical cyclone Chido crossed the country, and 35,000 homes were affected, in addition to 34 health units, according to a new preliminary report released this Tuesday.

According to the report issued by the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD), the tropical cyclone, which formed on December 5 in the southwest of the Indian Ocean, entered the district of Mecúfi, in Cabo Delgado province, in the north of the country, on Sunday, “with winds of around 260 kilometres per hour” and heavy rains.

Among the preliminary impacts already assessed, as of 6:00 p.m. local time on Monday, the situation had already affected 174,518 people, in a total of 34,219 families, with 34 dead – 28 in Cabo Delgado, three in Nampula province and three in Niassa – and 319 wounded, in addition to 11,744 partially and 23,598 completely destroyed homes.

Five places of worship, nine schools and 34 health units were also affected.

The signal of the three mobile telecommunications operators in Cabo Delgado was interrupted and the fibre-optic cable was severed between Chiure and Namapa in the same province.

The intense tropical cyclone Chido, category 3 on a scale of 1 to 5, hit the coastal area of northern Mozambique on the night of Saturday to Sunday, according to the National Emergency Operations Centre (CENOE), weakening to a severe tropical storm, although it continues to hit the northern provinces with “very heavy rains above 250 mm/24 hours, accompanied by thunderstorms and winds with very strong gusts”.

The Mozambican authorities had already warned on Thursday 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 in the world, facing cyclical 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 largest ever to hit the country.

In the first half of 2023, heavy rains and the passage of Cyclone Freddy affected more than 1.3 million people, causing 306 deaths and destroying 236,000 homes and 3,200 classrooms, according to official figures.

Source: Lusa