'Mozambique death toll rises to 446 after cyclone'

BEIRA: The death toll after a powerful cyclone in Mozambique has risen to 446 from 417, the minister of land and environment, Celso Correia, said on Sunday, adding that 531,000 people had been affected by the disaster.

Cyclone Idai lashed the Mozambican port city of Beira with winds of up to 170 kph, then moved inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi, flattening buildings and putting the lives of millions at risk.

More than a thousand people are feared to have died in a cyclone that smashed into Mozambique last week, while scores were killed and more than 200 are missing in neighbouring Zimbabwe



The city of Beira in central Mozambique bore Cyclone Idai’s full wrath on Thursday before the storm barrelled on to neighbouring Zimbabwe, unleashing fierce winds and flash floods and washing away roads and houses.

“For the moment we have registered 84 deaths officially, but when we flew over the area… this morning to understand what’s going on, everything indicates that we could register more than 1,000 deaths,” Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said in a nationwide address.

“This is a real humanitarian disaster,” he said. “More than 100,000 people are in danger”.

With additional input from AFP