Mozambique: Hundreds of Eloise victims still awaiting evacuation in Búzi

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Mozambique: Hundreds of Eloise victims still awaiting evacuation in Búzi

3:48 CAT | 27 Jan 2021

Photo: O País

Búzi remains cut off. You can’t get there by land. The only way to evacuate the victims is by boat, and even they sometimes stop running for lack of fuel.

Evacuation operations for the victims of tropical storm Eloise started six days ago, but still not all those who lost their homes and property in the headquarters town of Búzi district have been evacuated.

The victims are awaiting their transfer to a new life in the administrative post of Guara-Guara, in the same district.

The wait is already long, faces showing tiredness and impatience. Rescue operations for flood victims in the district began almost a week ago, but the queues are still long.

There are hundreds of stories about those who lost almost everything, complaints multiplying under the sun.

“We are not being evacuated. We are suffering with children. We are in the full sun and without any explanation as to the underlying problem,” complains Angélica Armando, waiting in line with her four children, including a baby on her lap.

“The boats have stopped and are no longer taking people to Guara-Guara,” she says.

Guara-Guara administrative post in Búzi district has become a kind of promised land for the men, women and children who dream of building a new life far from the necessity of fleeing whenever heavy rain falls.

But until that moment arrives, Angelica and her dependents submit to the sacrifice imposed by nature. “We can’t even shower. There is no water and it is difficult to get enough to eat,” she complains.

It is difficult to find food, and hunger is forced people to start making food in the same place where they sleep and store their goods. Sanitation is deficient.

While the ‘O País’ team was talking to the people waiting, there was no fuel for the boats to take them to Guara-Guara, but the Búzi district maritime delegate says there is no problem. “We have fuel. Yesterday (Monday) we received [fuel] and this Tuesday we received more,” he insists.

Number of those affected continues to rise

Between Monday and Tuesday, a further 76,000 people were added to the list of victims of the tropical cyclone Eloise in the provinces of Sofala, Manica, Zambézia and Inhambane. There are now 248,481 people affected, corresponding to 46,816 families in the five provinces mentioned above, plus Gaza. The number of deaths has risen from six to seven.

The preliminary data survey points to 9,806 houses partially destroyed, 4,154 houses completely destroyed and another 3,007 flooded. Across the five provinces, 74 health facilities have been destroyed, 322 classrooms partially destroyed, and 89 classrooms reduced to rubble.

The drama will take time to pass.

By António Tiua

Source: O País