The United Nations wants the international community to commit resources towards a humanitarian in the wake of Cyclone Kenneth – the second major storm to hit southern Africa in the past six weeks.
“The Secretary-General is deeply saddened at reports of loss of lives and destruction in Mozambique and Comoros as a result of tropical cyclone Kenneth, six weeks after Cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe,” U.N. Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.
Dujarric also extended the UN chief’s condolences and solidarity to the families of the victims and to the governments and peoples of Mozambique and Comoros.
At least five people have been killed by the effects of the cyclone in Mozambique’s Pemba city, Macomia district and on Ibo Island, according to government reports.
Last week the U.N. said that Cyclone Idai had devastated central Mozambique, killing more than 600 people, unleashing a cholera epidemic, wiping out crops in the country’s breadbasket, forcing a million people to rely on food assistance to survive, and causing massive destruction of homes, schools and infrastructure in one of the world’s poorest countries.
With humanitarian efforts still on following Cyclone Idai, the U.N. is appealing for urgent funds to mitigate the effects of Cyclone Kenneth.
“Cyclone Kenneth may require a major new humanitarian operation at the same time that the ongoing Cyclone Idai response targeting three million people in three countries remains critically underfunded,” UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said, adding: “The families whose lives have been turned upside down by these climate-related disasters urgently need the generosity of the international community to survive over the coming months.”
