As roads reopen, rescuers expect to reach more cyclone survivors in Mozambique
The number of people in makeshift camps had risen by 18,000 to 128,000 since Sunday, while the death toll in three countries is almost 700
Beira — Rescuers said they would reach hundreds of people on Monday still stranded more than a week after a powerful cyclone struck Mozambique and swathes of southern Africa, as roads started to reopen. Cyclone Idai lashed Mozambique’s port city of Beira with winds of up to 170km/h around midnight on March 14, then moved inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi, flattening buildings and killing at least 657 people across the three countries. “We are more organised now, after the chaos that we’ve had, so we’re delivering food and shelter to more people today,” Mozambique’s land and environment minister Celso Correia told reporters. Correia said the number of people in makeshift camps had risen by 18,000 to 128,000 since Sunday, most of them in the Beira area. Communities near Nhamatanda, about 100km northwest of Beira and where some people have not received aid for days, would receive assistance on Monday, he added. The cyclone and the heavy rains that followed hampered aid efforts and blocked ...
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