Tete tragedy: Nyusi calls for action and flexibility in assisting victims – Mozambique

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Tete tragedy: Nyusi calls for action and flexibility in assisting victims – Mozambique

11:32 CAT | 18 Nov 2016

DW (File photo) / President Filipe Nyusi

The Mozambican president today expressed his sorrow at the tragic explosion of a tanker truck in Tete province on Thursday, causing dozens of deaths, and said that the authorities needed to show flexibility in assisting the victims.

“Tragedy has knocked on our door once again in Tete. The important thing now is to be as flexible in assisting the people and taking action as possible,” Filipe Nyusi said at the opening of an extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers in Maputo. The disaster in Caphiridzange, Moatize district, in the centre of the country, is the sole item on the agenda

The latest report released by Radio Mozambique, based on hospital sources, has 56 confirmed dead, along with 97 injured, 36 seriously. These numbers are below the 73 deaths announced on Thursday night by the same public broadcaster citing the Tete Provincial Government,

The extraordinary Council of Ministers meeting takes place in tandem with the sending of a government team headed by the Minister of State Administration and Public Administration, Carmelita Namashulua, accompanied by the Minister of Transport and Communications, Carlos Mesquita, the Deputy Health Minister, Mouzinho Saíde, and the Director of the National Institute of Disaster Management, Osvaldo Machatine, to the scene of the tragedy.

According to the public radio report, the truck was diverted from its route by a long-distance driver from Malawi to Caphiridzange, where the tragedy occurred at 3:00 PM local time.

Source: Lusa