"Let's get ready": the number of cyclone victims exceeds 600 in Africa

BEIRA, Mozambique – Floods calmed Friday in parts of Mozambique, which is fearful of a cyclone. More and more people are worried about shedding more bodies. The confirmed number of people killed in Mozambique and neighboring countries, Zimbabwe and Malawi, has exceeded 600.

Eight days after the pbadage of Hurricane Idai on the coast of the Indian Ocean, southeast of Africa, causing some of the worst floods in recent decades, the homeless, hungry and injured have slowly left the devastated areas of the interior of the country to go to the port city of Beira, itself badly damaged. has emerged as the nerve center of rescue efforts.

"Some were injured. Some were bleeding, "said Julia Castigo, a Beira resident who watched them arrive. "Some had white feet like flour for having been in the water for so long."

Humanitarian workers see many children separated from their parents in chaos or orphaned.

Elhadj As Sy, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said relief efforts so far "are by no means commensurate with the problem" and that humanitarian needs are likely to increase in the coming weeks. and months.

"We should prepare," he says.

The helicopters left in the rain for another day of effort to find people hanging on the roofs and trees.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for strengthened badistance for Idai victims, saying the UN and its humanitarian partners are stepping up their action but that a "More important international support is still needed".

The head of the US government said in a statement that "as crops are being destroyed in the attic of Mozambique, more and more people are threatened by food insecurity in all three countries".

With water and sanitation systems largely destroyed, waterborne diseases are also a growing concern.

"The situation is just horrible. As Sy said, after visiting camps for the growing number of displaced people, there is no other way to describe it. "Three thousand people who live in a school that has 15 clbadrooms and six, only six, toilets. You can imagine how much we are sitting on a time bomb for water and sanitation. "

The death toll in Mozambique stood at 293, with countless missing persons and the morgue at Beira Central Hospital was already full. As Sy said, deaths could exceed the 1,000 predicted by the country's president earlier this week.

The death toll has been estimated at 259 in Zimbabwe and 56 in Malawi.

Thousands of people traveled from the Mozambique hinterland to Beira, some on roads cut by raging water. Hundreds of others arrived by boat, carried by fishermen who tore people stranded on land parcels turned into islands. Many of the arrivals were children.

In Beira, people recovered metal strips from roofs that had been peeled like fruit skin. Fallen trees strew the streets.

And yet, there were flashes of life as before. The white wedding dresses were immaculate behind a window that had not broken.

The downtown sidewalk was Marta Ben's new home. The mother of five, aged 30, was holding a child in tears at the hip while she was describing the sudden horror of the storm that destroyed their home in Beira.

"I've never seen anything like it," she says, barefoot, a boiling pot nearby. "We have not been warned. Suddenly, the roof flew away.

She and other people now homeless have asked for help from pbadersby, saying that they had not received anything from the government or aid groups, not even bread. .

In Zimbabwe, where roads began to open and establish some basic communications, a more complete picture of the extent of the damage began to appear.

Among the victims was a mother buried in the same grave with her child; the directors were missing with dozens of students; illegal gold and diamond mines washed away by raging rivers; and the police took away with their prisoners.

In the city of Mutare, Maina Chisiriirwa said that she had buried her son-in-law, who had gone illegally into the diamond fields.

"There is no job and all he wanted was to feed his family. He was with his colleagues. They thought it would be easier to mine because the rains would prevent the guards and the police from patrolling, "Chisiriirwa said.

Her colleagues survived, but her son-in-law was blown away, she said.

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Farai Mutsaka was reported in Mutare, Zimbabwe.

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