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Smoke rises in Mamoudzou, in the aftermath of Cyclone Chido, as seen from Dzaoudzi–Pamandzi International Airport in Pamandzi, Mayotte, France, on December 17 2024. Picture: GONZALO FUENTES/REUTERS
Smoke rises in Mamoudzou, in the aftermath of Cyclone Chido, as seen from Dzaoudzi–Pamandzi International Airport in Pamandzi, Mayotte, France, on December 17 2024. Picture: GONZALO FUENTES/REUTERS

Cyclone Chido killed at least 34 people in Mozambique after ravaging the French island of Mayotte days earlier, officials reported on Tuesday. 

 The “intense” tropical cyclone hit the coast of northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province on Sunday, battering the country with winds of up to 260km an hour, according to Mozambique’s disaster management agency INGD. 

Preliminary data collected by the agency so far shows that at least 34 people were killed, 319 injured, and 23,598 homes were wrecked with another 11,744 seriously damaged.

Collecting information has been a challenge with disruption of services of the three main cellphone network operators Vodacom, Movitel and TMCEL. Mozambique’s electricity utility EDM reported yesterday that 110,000 people had no power.

 The destruction was “devastating”, especially in rural areas where many are living in rudimentary conditions, according to Unicef spokesperson Guy Taylor, who is in Cabo Delgado. 

 “There are reports that in some areas basically all dwellings were knocked down. Schools, hospitals, and healthcare facilities have been put out of action. People there mostly don't have access to clean water and sanitation already, but obviously this is only going to make that worse,” Taylor told Business Day. 

Unicef estimates that at least 90,000 children were affected by Cyclone Chido. Yesterday, the agency issued an emergency appeal for $10m to meet the humanitarian needs of people hit the disaster.

One of the worst affected districts was Mecufi, which has thousands of people displaced by the conflict with Islamic State Mozambique. 

“Displaced people are often living in even more precarious circumstances, without access to any public services, sometimes without land to grow food on, so the risk to them, and particularly to children, of malnutrition, disease, and losing their homes is greater,” said Taylor. 

Earlier, Cyclone Chido struck Mayotte, where 21 people were reported to have been killed, but the final death toll could be close to a thousand, Mayotte Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville told local TV.

The cyclone was the strongest storm to hit the islands in more than 90 years, according to forecaster Meteo-France. 

Chido also passed through Mozambique’s provinces of Nampula and Niassa, gradually losing power as it continued into Malawi.

Since October, Mozambique has been racked by civil unrest and protests against the controversial general election results, which gave victory to the ruling party Frelimo, but opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane yesterday called for demonstrations to be suspended in solidarity with the victims of Cyclone Chido. 

In a live stream on Facebook, he said there should be “a week of mourning” from Thursday to Sunday before certification of the election results by the country’s supreme electoral court, the Constitutional Council, on 23rd December. The court’s judgment would determine “peace or chaos” in Mozambique, Mondlane warned. 

The UN High Commission for Refugees told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that it was worried that Cyclone Chido “may signal the start of an intense and destructive rainy season”. 

 The country is still recovering from Cyclone Freddy, which hit Mozambique twice last year and was the longest-lived cyclone yet recorded. More than 180 people were killed in the storm, said the World Meteorological Organisation. 

 Mozambique is one of the countries most affected by climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index, though its contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is negligible. 

 “Mozambique has been hit repeatedly almost every year by cyclones — Cyclones Idai, Kenneth, Anna, Gombe, Freddy. It is just a relentless onslaught of climate change-induced disasters to which the people of Mozambique have contributed very little,” said Taylor.

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