Time to hold on
Cyclone Idai claims 360 lives in southern Africa; floods in Indonesia kill over 100
Residents carry their belongings with them on Wednesday in Chipinge, Zimbabwe, after the area was recently struck by Cyclone Idai.
President Xi Jinping on Wednesday sent messages of condolence respectively to Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Malawian President Peter Mutharika over the recent tropical cyclone disasters.
In his messages, Xi noted that Cyclone Idai has caused heavy casualties and property damage in the three African countries.
On behalf of the Chinese government and people, and in his own name, Xi expressed deep condolences over the loss of lives, and extended sincere sympathies to the families of the victims and the missing, as well as to the injured and all those in the disaster-hit areas.
The Chinese people feel the pain of the three countries, he said, adding that he is confident that under the strong leadership of their governments, the people of the three countries will prevail over the disaster and rebuild their homes soon.
On the same day, Xi also sent a message of condolences to Indonesian President Joko Widodo over the recent deadly floods in the southeast Asian country.
More than 100 people have been killed in flash floods and landslides in the eastern Indonesian province of Papua, and dozens of others are still missing, according to Indonesian officials and rescuers.
Aid workers raced on Wednesday to help survivors and meet spiraling humanitarian needs in the three southern African countries battered by the region’s worst storm in years, the Agence FrancePresse reported.
Five days after tropical cyclone Idai cut a swathe through Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, the confirmed death toll stood at more than 360 and hundreds of thousands of lives were at risk, officials said.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Cyclone Idai may be one of the worst natural disasters to hit southern Africa in living memory, Xinhua reported.
Mozambique, where the monster storm made landfall early last Friday, is reeling.
“We’ve thousands of people ... in roofs and trees waiting for rescue,” said Caroline Haga, spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
“We are running out of time. People have been waiting for rescue for more than three days now,” she told AFP in the storm-ravaged coastal city of Beira.
She added: “Unfortunately, we can’t pick up all the people, so our priority are children, pregnant women, injured people.”
Some survivors were still clinging onto trees or roofs, waiting for rescue teams almost a week after the storm first struck. Roads around Beira were swamped and it was raining heavily, complicating rescue efforts and forcing aid had to be delivered by helicopter or plane, Reuters said.
Cyclone Idai lashed Beira with winds of up to 170 km/h on April 14, then moved inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi, flattening buildings and putting the lives of millions at risk.
The floods have also brought the threat of waterborne and respiratory diseases, including pneumonia.
Mozambican President Nyusi, who declared three days of national mourning starting on Wednesday, has said the eventual death toll from the cyclone and ensuing floods could rise to more than 1,000.