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Residents of Mozambique's hurricane-stricken areas are desperately hanging on to roofs in areas virtually submerged by floodwaters, waiting for help and relief, the charity said Save the Children.
Humanitarian workers are also fighting over time to prevent thousands of children from being trapped in Buzi, a district of Sofala Central Province that could be inundated within the next 24 hours, according to an aerial survey, according to one organization. international charity.
The survey showed that more than 50 km of land in Buzi town was submerged after the overflow of a river after the passage of Hurricane Idai, which devastated three countries in southern Africa.
"Thousands of children lived in areas completely engulfed by water.In many places, we do not even see the roofs or treetops above the floods." regions, people are clinging to the roofs and desperately waiting to be saved, "said Machiel Pouw, Save the Children. leader of the response in Mozambique.
The European Union announced that it would send emergency aid of $ 3.97 million to Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. The UAE has announced that they will send nearly $ 5 million in assistance.
The aid includes food and children's food supplements, medical and medical supplies, and shelters to help 600,000 people in all countries, according to the UAE Red Crescent.
Fears are growing for more than 500,000 people in the city of Beira, Mozambique, after aid agency officials warned that 90 percent of the area was destroyed by Cyclone Idai.
"The roads are totally cut off, so Beira is isolated and the mobile phone network is down," said Marco Tamburro, director of Humanity and Inclusion, a non-profit organization.
Thousands of families, including many of the poorest neighborhoods in Beira, have lost their homes. Some have taken refuge with neighbors and friends, he added, but most have no choice but to wait for humanitarian aid.
Tamburro also warned that flooding could lead to an epidemic.
"There is a big risk to having this large amount of water in the city, there is a risk of epidemic cholera, malaria and other diseases."
The hurricane crashed on Thursday at midnight in the southeastern country of Africa in the form of an upscale category 2 storm, with winds of 175 km / h (110 mph). mph), causing widespread devastation, before moving inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi.
The first images of the European Sentinel-1 satellite show that an area of 150 square miles (388 square kilometers) has been affected, the European Copernicus Emergency Management Service said Tuesday. This is an area more than twice as large as the District of Columbia.
In-flight metals beheaded victims
Residents of Beira told AFP that many of the victims were injured by the metal sheets flying over the roofs of some houses in the area.
"Flying metal sheets, decapitated people, people are very bad here, some are in the hospital … we have no help here … it's bad, we're eating bad, we sleep badly and we're not home, "said Rajino Paulino.
Layla George, another victim, said she was sleeping Thursday night when the roof of her house was washed away by the strong winds caused by the hurricane.
"I was inside my house, I was sleeping and I had set the bed so that my daughter slept underneath … suddenly, the roof flew away." J & # 39; I locked the door and lost the keys, we started screaming for help, but there was no help because it was the middle of the night and there was a lot of wind. " said George to AFP.
Residents said they lost their homes and did not have a place to stay.
The death of more than 200 people in Mozambique has been confirmed, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi told reporters on Tuesday. He warned that this number was preliminary.
On Monday, while the death toll was 84, Nyusi said his government was expecting more than 1,000.
Nyusi said he saw "bodies float" in the water after two rivers broke "annihilating whole villages" and isolating others. "It's a real, massive humanitarian disaster," Nyusi said.
If Nyusi's estimated death toll is confirmed, Tropical Cyclone Idai would be the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded in Southern Africa.
Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said that there was no electricity in Beira and in the surrounding areas and that almost all the lines of communication had been destroyed.
"The main roads leading to Beira have been cut off, buildings have been submerged and severely damaged, and all activities have been shut down," said the aid agency, adding that "medical activities at Beira hospital, in community health centers have completely stopped.
Although the cyclone hit Mozambique on Thursday, it took several days before the scale of the damage materialized, in part because of the country's poor infrastructure.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Amnesty International called on foreign governments and international aid agencies to "strengthen" their resources and assistance for the thousands of displaced people and people trapped in the aftermath of the disaster.
The international human rights organization has urged flood-prone authorities in Mozambique and Zimbabwe to adopt climate change policies that could reduce the impact of such incidents. .
"As the effects of climate change intensify, it is expected that these extreme weather conditions will revisit us more often.The devastation wrought by Cyclone Idai is a new warning for the world to in place ambitious measures to mitigate climate change, "said Muleya Mwananyanda, Deputy Regional Director of Amnesty for Southern Africa.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has described the situation in Beira, a port city in the lower Indian Ocean, as appalling, after an air assessment by the agency on Monday. .
IFRC spokesman Jamie LeSueur said 90 percent of the area had been destroyed. "The magnitude of the devastation is huge," LeSueur said.
On Sunday, a roadblock erupted, cutting the last road in the city, which aid workers are now struggling to reach.
Cylone Idai has caused destruction of this magnitude because of poverty and lack of infrastructure.
Tropical cyclones are known to hit Mozambique in the fall. In February 2000, cyclone Eline also landed near Beira during a period of heavy rains, killing hundreds and displacing 650,000 people across the region.
Zimbabwe and Malawi
After landing in Mozambique, Idai crossed neighboring Zimbabwe and parts of Malawi in the form of a tropical storm.
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa made a disaster declaration for the affected areas, the ministry said.
Idai has caused floods in Zimbabwe that have swept hundreds of homes in the east and west of the country, authorities said.
The Zimbabwean Ministry of Information has released photos of some students rescued from a boarding school in Chimanimani District, one of the most affected areas in the east of the country. The bridges were swept and the power and communication lines in the area were cut.
This rain was associated with the same storm system that later became Cyclone Idai.
Vasco Cotovio from CNN wrote from London. CNN's Bukola Adebayo wrote and published his report in Lagos. CNN Jenni Marsh, meteorologist Brandon Miller and journalist Columbus S. Mavhunga from Harare contributed to this report.
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