Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi informed his people that at least 1 000 could have perished due to Tropical Cyclone Idai.
The city of Beira in central Mozambique bore Cyclone Idai’s full wrath on Thursday before the storm barrelled on to neighbouring Zimbabwe, unleashing fierce winds and flash floods and washing away roads and houses.
While addressing the nation from the Capital Maputo, Nyusi said:
For the moment we have registered 84 deaths officially, but when we flew over the area… this morning to understand what’s going on, everything indicates that we could register more than 1,000 deaths.
In Beira, a large dam burst on Sunday and cut off the last road to the city. People could be seen sitting on housetops as the city was inundated.
Zimbabwe’s Ministry of information confirmed that Cyclone Idai left 98 dead and at least 217 more missing.
The storm swept away homes and ripped bridges to pieces, leaving destruction that the acting Defence Minister Perrance Shiri said: “resembles the aftermath of a full-scale war”.
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