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More than 100 people died and many more missing in Mozambique and neighbouring Zimbabwe yesterday after tropical cyclone Idai barrelled across the southern African nations with flash floods and ferocious winds.
Authorities in Zimbabwe said the toll there had risen to 65 in the east of the country, while Mozambique said 48 people were killed in affected central areas, as the cyclone tore across the region on Friday and Saturday. Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who cut short a visit to Abu Dhabi over the cyclone, has declared a state of disaster in the affected areas.
The majority of those unaccounted for are thought to be government workers, whose housing complex was completely engulfed by raging waters.
Their fate is currently unknown because the area is still unreachable.
In neighbouring Mozambique where the cyclone hit first on Thursday night, the country’s state-owned Jornal Domingo newspaper reported 48 people had been killed, with the deaths recorded in the worst-hit central Sofala province.
Tropical cyclone Idai battered central Mozambique on Friday, cutting off more than half a million residents of the port city Beira. Beira international airport was briefly shut after the air traffic control tower and navigation equipment were partially destroyed by the cyclone.
The airport was set to reopen yesterday as flights began taking off from the capital Maputo bound for Beira.
