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Flooded area: The land west of the city of Beira has been transformed into an inland sea. By document (United Nations World Food Program / AFP)
Relief workers ran Wednesday to help survivors and cope with the growing humanitarian needs of three southern African countries hit by the worst storm in the region in years.
Five days after Tropical Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, the death toll was estimated at more than 300 and hundreds of thousands were at risk, officials said.
Mozambique, where the monster storm landed early last Friday, is in turmoil.
"We have thousands of people … in rooftops and trees waiting for help," said Caroline Haga, spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
A wounded survivor is evacuated by helicopter from Chimanimani, in eastern Zimbabwe. By ZINYANGE AUNTONY (AFP) "We are running out of time, people have been waiting for help for more than three days," she told AFP in the storm-ravaged coastal town of Beira.
She added: "Unfortunately, we can not take everyone, so we prioritize children, pregnant women and the wounded."
Deborah Nguyen, spokesperson for the World Food Program (WFP), told AFP in Beira that "the priority today is to rush to rescue people stranded in the flooded areas", just as much than to organize a temporary shelter for the saved people.
"The situation has not really improved. In Buzi (Beira district), the villages are still under water but the good news is that there are many rescue teams working all day long.
"Relief operations are progressing, but there is still a lot of work to do."
The UN aims to help some 600,000 people over the next few weeks.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said Tuesday that 202 people had died, according to the latest report, with nearly 350,000 people at risk.
In Zimbabwe, the death toll rises to 100 on Wednesday, but it is expected to reach 300 deaths. There are an estimated 15,000 people affected by the storm.
In Malawi, nearly one million people have been affected and more than 80,000 have been forced to leave their homes, according to the UN.
Flooding shock
Floods in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. By (AFP) Humanitarian agencies prepared for the cyclone that landed early Friday, but not for the mbadive floods that followed.
Mozambique has been most affected by the rivers flowing downstream from its neighbors.
"No one was prepared for the floods, the cyclone caused torrential rains in Zimbabwe and Malawi and all the water came here," Haga said.
People stand near a damaged stretch of road between Beira and Chimoio, in Nhamatanda district, in central Mozambique. By ADRIEN BARBIER (AFP) Beira Airport, partially damaged by the storm and temporarily closed, has reopened to become the center of relief operations but is not large enough.
Members of the air forces of Mozambique and South Africa have been mobilized to conduct rescue missions and distribute aid, which can not be transported by air, the roads leaving Beira having been destroyed.
A woman in Chimanimani holds chickens that were rescued from a house that was destroyed by the storm. By ZINYANGE AUNTONY (AFP) A government official who asked not to be identified spoke of the edge of a road after being rescued by boat to Nhamatanda, about 60 km northwest of Beira, claiming that "it is the first time our generation sees this situation. "
Climate specialist John Mutter, a professor at the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, said the high toll was partly due to the low frequency of such weather events in southern Africa.
"Mozambique and Zimbabwe are essentially unprepared, they both have weak governance that, frankly, focuses on many more urgent things (as they would see it), and as cyclones are so rare in this part of the world. world, the preparation is minimal, "Mutter told AFP.
"A whole village swept away"
In Zimbabwe, at least 217 people are missing in Chimanimani, Manicaland, an eastern province on the border with Mozambique.
Consequences: The mud fills a house in Chimanimani. By ZINYANGE AUNTONY (AFP) The district remains isolated after roads have been swallowed by vast sinkholes and bridges have been ravaged by sudden floods – a landscape that Defense Minister Perrance Shiri has described as "a landscape resembling the consequences of the floods". a war of great magnitude ".
Families used hoes to dig mounds of earth in search of their missing relatives, an AFP correspondent said.
After visiting some of the victims at Chimanimani, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said that a "tragedy has visited us".
"The last place we visited, where the three main rivers merge, an entire village was washed away, I think these are the bodies that are now found in Mozambique," he said.
The three countries are among the poorest in the region and rely heavily on foreign aid.
In Rome, Pope Francis expressed "my pain and my closeness" to those affected by the disaster.
"I entrust the many victims and their families to the mercy of God and I implore comfort and support for the people affected by this calamity," he said, addressing thousands of pilgrims. St. Peter's Square.
burs-sn / ri
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