A Huge Cyclone Struck Mozambique And The Pictures Of The Aftermath Are Devastating

Cyclone Idai has been called one of the worst-ever weather-related disasters in the southern hemisphere.

Hundreds of people are feared dead after cyclone winds and flooding struck southeastern Africa.

Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique last week and has also crashed into Zimbabwe and Malawi.

More than 200 people have been confirmed dead in Mozambique, 98 in Zimbabwe, and 56 in Malawi, but Mozambique’s president said the true death toll in the country could be much higher, around 1,000.

Filipe Nyusi declared three days of national mourning on Tuesday. “It is a real disaster of great proportions,” the president said.

More than 2.6 million people across the region are affected, including 1.7 million in Mozambique.

The Mozambique port city of Beira, home to 500,000 people and particularly vulnerable to flooding as it is low-lying, has suffered the worst damage associated with the storm.

Pedro, a father of three children all under the age of 10, told BBC News from Beira, “Please help us. Tell the world we are suffering. We don't know where we are going to sleep.”

"What we are seeing emerging from our informal networks and from the official databases is if the worst fears are realized... it is one of the worst weather-related disasters in the Southern Hemisphere,” Clare Nullis, a spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization, an agency of the United Nations, said.

And World Food Programme spokesperson Herve Verhoosel said Mozambique was facing a “major humanitarian emergency that is getting bigger by the hour.”

CORRECTION

Clare Nullis's name was misspelled in an earlier version of this post.


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