Cyclone Chido kills 94 people in Mozambique

Cyclone Chido has killed 94 people in Mozambique since it made landfall in the east African country last week, government officials said.

The National Institute of Risk and Disaster Management (INGD) of the country said that 768 people were injured and more than 622,000 people were affected by natural disasters in other areas.

Chido hit Mozambique on 15 December with winds of 260 km/h (160mph) and 250mm of rain in the first 24 hours.

The same typhoon first caused damage in the French Indian Ocean in Mayotte, before moving to Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

In Mozambique, the typhoon hit the northern regions that are prone to cyclones. It first reached Cabo Delgado, then went to Niassa and Nampula.

The INGD organization in the country said that the typhoon has disrupted the education and health sector. More than 109,793 students were affected, while school equipment was severely damaged.

52 sanitary units were damaged, INGD said, which also jeopardizes access to essential health services. This is especially true in areas where access to medical care was limited before the storm.

The leader of the ruling party in Mozambique, Daniel Chapo, told the Mozambican media that the government is encouraging “all” people in dealing with the storm.

Speaking during a visit to Cabo Delgado on Monday, one of the most affected areas, Chapo said the government is working with INGD to ensure that those affected in Mecúfi, Nampula, Memba and Niassa regions can rebuild.

In Mayotte, Chido is the worst storm to hit the islands in 90 years, and thousands of people are facing this disaster.

The Ministry of Interior in its latest update has confirmed that 35 people have died.

The mayor of Mayotte previously told local media that the death toll could rise significantly when properly assessed, warning that “it will be a few hundred” and could reach thousands.

More than 1,300 police officers were deployed to assist the local community.

A week later, many people are still without basic necessities, while the water is slowly returning to the district capital. The ministry has advised people to boil water for three minutes before drinking it.

About 100 tons of weapons are being shipped daily, the ministry said, as an air bridge is built between Mayotte, Reunion and mainland France.

In a statement on Friday, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said 80 tons of food and 50 tons of water were distributed in Mayotte that day.

Cyclones are characterized by high wind speeds, thunderstorms, and thunderstorms, which rise for a short period of time to the surface of the water. This often leads to damage and flooding.

The storm, INGD said, “highlights, once again, the vulnerability of the environment that people live in to climate change and the need for better planning to mitigate future impacts”.

Assessing the impact of climate change on other types of hurricanes can be difficult due to the complexity of these storms. But rising temperatures affect these storms in measurable ways.

The UN climate body, IPCC, said earlier there is a “high degree of confidence” that humans contributed to the increase in rainfall from the storm, and a “moderate degree of confidence” that humans contributed to the intensity of the storm.