KENYA: Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi says that more than 1,000 may have by killed by Cyclone Idai, AP reported.
The president told the state radio that although the official death count is currently 84, he believes the toll will be more than 1,000.
“It appears that we can register more than 1000 deaths,” said the president, adding that more than 100,000 people are at risk of life.
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“The waters of the Pungue and Buzi rivers overflowed, making whole villages disappear and isolating communities, and bodies are floating,” said Nyusi. “It is a real disaster of great proportions.”
Nyusi spoke after flying over the port city of Beira and viewing the flooding and devastation. He said he saw bodies floating in the flooded areas.
Tropical Cyclone Idai brought deadly flooding to parts of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi after making landfall in central Mozambique Thursday night, local time.
Idai barreled onshore north of Beira, Mozambique, with its strength equivalent to a Category 3 major hurricane in the Atlantic or eastern Pacific oceans.
The Red Cross said that 90 percent of Beira, a city of 500,000, had been damaged or destroyed.
More than hundreds are missing and more than 1.5 million people have been affected by the widespread destruction and flooding, according to the Red Cross and government officials.
Cyclone Idai first hit Beira last week and then moved inland spreading heavy winds and rainfall to Zimbabwe and Malawi.
(With inputs from agencies)
