Mozambique: Disasters claim 14 lives since October, 53,269 affected – INGD

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Mozambique: Disasters claim 14 lives since October, 53,269 affected – INGD

11:40 CAT | 24 Jan 2022

FILE PHOTO - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

At least 14 people have died due to natural disasters since October in Mozambique and a further 53,269 have been affected, according to the latest report from the country’ National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD).

In all, 11,022 families have been affected, with 43 people injured between 1 October and Monday, the INGD said in the document, which was sent to Lusa.

The deaths, 11 of which were recorded in Zambezia, a province in central Mozambique, were caused by lightning, flooding, collapsed homes and uncontrolled fires.

The current rainy season also caused the partial or total destruction of 5,588 houses and flooded another 5,759, as well as destroying 987 classrooms – some of precarious, others of conventional construction – affecting 114,110 pupils in 385 schools.

According to the authorities, the storms affected eight health units, 55 places of worship and 70 power stations.

Mozambique is in the middle of the rainy and cyclonic season, which runs from October and April, with storms coming in from the Indian Ocean and causing floods in river basins in southern Africa.

Mozambique’s National Meteorology Institute (Inam) on Sunday warned of the possibility of the formation of a cyclone that could pose risks to the country.

The warm waters in the Indian Ocean at this time of year, including in the Mozambique Channel, are among factors contributing to the formation of cyclones that regularly hit the Mozambican coast.

The 2018/2019 rainy season was one of the most severe in living memory in Mozambique: 714 people died, including 648 victims of two of the biggest cyclones (Idai and Kenneth) ever to hit the country.

Source: Lusa