U.N. makes urgent appeal for victims of cyclone
Beira, Mozambique — The United Nations is making an emergency appeal for $282 million for the next three months to help Mozambique start recovering from the devastation of Cyclone Idai.
The U.N. funding will be used to provide water, sanitation, education and restoring the livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of displaced people, U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said Monday.
He said separate appeals will be made shortly for Zimbabwe and Malawi, also hardhit by the cyclone.
Lowcock said funds for cyclone victims are starting to come through, including about $29 million from the United Kingdom, but are far outstripped by the needs.
UNICEF head Henrietta Fore just visited Mozambique’s ravaged port city of Beira and said “it’s a race against time” to help the displaced and prevent disease.
Authorities in Mozambique say that with a key road open to the badly damaged city of Beira, conditions on the ground improving and more international help arriving, vital aid to those hit by Cyclone Idai should now flow more freely.
Cyclone Idai’s death toll has risen above 750 in the three southern African countries hit 10 days ago by the storm, as workers rush to restore electricity, water and try to prevent outbreak of cholera.
In Mozambique the number of dead has risen to 446 while there are 259 dead in Zimbabwe and at least 56 dead in Malawi for a three-nation total of 761.
The death toll is “very preliminary,” said Mozambique’s environment minister, Celso Correia, who said it is expected to rise.
The U.S. military will join the number of international aid groups assisting in providing food and medical care to those affected by the massive cyclone, one of the worst natural disasters in southern Africa in recent history.
Some 228,000 displaced people are now in camps across the vast flooded area of Mozambique, said Correia, who is the government’s disaster coordinator, briefing journalists on Monday. It is still too early to give a number of missing, he said.
Diarrhea is reported in camps but he says it is too early to say whether it is cholera. He has said that it is almost certain that the deadly disease will emerge.
Aid teams are going to high points on islands created by Cyclone Idai and finding “a lot of people,” Correia said.
Until all areas can be reached and assessed, it is impossible to say the disaster response effort has turned a corner, he said.
When asked by journalists about people found sheltering in a school along the newly opened main road to Beira who said they had not eaten since the storm, Correia said the aid had to be prioritized according to necessity.
At least they were found and aid is coming, he said. “They can still hang on for a few days.”