The World Food Program (WFP) is assisting the thousands affected by Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, providing food assistance and helicopters to those in need.
As the cyclone hits Mozambique, around 500,000 residents in the port city of Beira have been left without electricity and communications, with heavy rains and winds of up to 177 k/h.
One WFP team member reported: “There are fallen trees everywhere, we are 150km from Beira,” WFP tweeted earlier today.
From food assistance to drones, here's how WFP is helping as #CycloneIdai moves inland across #Mozambique
🌽 high-energy biscuits & additional food stocks
🚁 helicopter for remote access
📡 programming, logistics & telecommunications experts
🕹 drones for emergency mapping pic.twitter.com/UxNw9L6XrK— World Food Programme (@WFP) March 15, 2019
With heavy rains and winds of up to 177 k/h, Idai had built waves up to seven metres high over the Mozambique channel.
The cyclone has now moved west towards Zimbabwe.The South African Weather Service said the storm would weaken as it moved inland but would still bring significant rain and widespread flash flooding to the Sofala and Manica provinces, the far east of Zimbabwe and southern Malawi.
This comes after a week of storms and heavy rains which have devastated parts of southern Africa, in particular Malawi and Mozambique. Over 100 people have been killed, and 80,000 displaced, with thousands of homes destroyed.
Malawi’s Meteorological Department has warned of more rains and flooding in the country’s south between Thursday and Sunday.
Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi says his government is “doing all we can to ensure that the situation returns to normal in all spheres”.
This is the biggest cyclone to hit Mozambique in over a decade.
