Thousands of flood victims still stranded

As many as 15,000 people are still waiting to be rescued a week after Cyclone Idai first hammered coastal Mozambique and swept across the country to Zimbabwe.

Charities said the cyclone victims stranded by catastrophic flooding were clinging to roofs or stuck in trees.

Floodwaters are rushing across the plains of central Mozambique, submerging homes, villages and entire towns. The flooding has created a muddy inland ocean 31 miles wide where there used to be farms and villages, giving credence to Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi’s estimate that 1,000 people may have been killed. Torrential rains lifted – at least temporarily – yesterday as floodwaters began to recede in Beira, the worst-hit city, and in the countryside.

Aid groups were working non-stop to rescue families. Caroline Haga, from the International Federation of the Red Cross in Beira, said: “[On Wednesday], 910 people were rescued by the humanitarian community.”