Mozambique’s government has urged many people to immediately seek higher ground after at least five people were killed in Cyclone Kenneth.
By Farai Mutsaka, Associated Press
April 27 2019 3:04 PM
Mozambique’s government has urged many people to immediately seek higher ground after at least five people were killed in Cyclone Kenneth.
Authorities fear flooding and mudslides in the days ahead after heavy rain lashed the region.
Nearly 700,000 people could be at risk, with many left exposed and hungry as waters rise.
Mozambique’s disaster management agency said one person had died in Pemba city and another in hard-hit Macomia district, while residents on Ibo island said two people died there.
Details on the fifth death were not immediately available.
Nearly 3,500 homes in parts of the country’s northernmost Cabo Delgado province were partially or fully destroyed, with electricity cut, some roads blocked and at least one key bridge collapsed.
Some schools and health centres were damaged.
“There’s a very intense strip of destruction where the wind first made impact in coastal districts,” Nicholas Finney, response team leader with the aid group Save the Children, told The Associated Press after visiting Macomia district.
The team found people in shock in a region where a cyclone had never been recorded in the modern age.
Terrified children and traumatised parents “face a huge task to start to rebuild”, he said.
It doesn’t look good, quite honestly
Save the Children’s Nicholas Finney
Rain is forecast over the next several days and Mozambique’s meteorological authority said the storm could potentially move back out to sea and intensify again, Mr Finney added.
“It doesn’t look good, quite honestly,” he said of the risk of flooding.
As water levels rose, Mozambique authorities asked residents of Mecufi and Chiure districts and parts of Macomia and Muidumbe districts to immediately seek higher ground.
