– Flooding is increasing the risk of cholera at a time when the country is struggling to contain an outbreak since September 2022, officials have revealed.
John Cassim
HARARE, Zimbabwe – A humanitarian crisis is forming in Mozambique, following Friday’s landfall of Tropical Storm Freddy, through the Inhamabane province.
Freddy started as a Tropical Cyclone, before hitting Madagascar where officials say, it claimed seven lives.
At a time when the storm was located south of Mozambique channel, approximately 100km away, the INAM announced that the storm was expected to reach the district of Vilankulo, with winds of 120km/h and with gusts of approximately 160km/h.
A red alert issued by the National Meteorology Institute of Mozambique (INAM) is already in place to help accelerate response operations.
At least 400,000 people are living in the areas of Freddy’s projected trajectory according to the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGD).
According to the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), up to 1.75 million people are at risk of flooding in central Mozambique and cities such as Beira and Quelimane, will be affected.
250,000 more people are at risk of flooding in southern Mozambique including, Maputo, adjoining Matola and Xai-Xai in the Gaza province.
Mozambique is already battling with floods that have left thousands of people homeless.
Since the rainy/cyclonic season started in October 2022, a total of 18,633 families, across Mozambique, have been affected.
Some 4,050 houses have been partially destroyed, 1,839 totally destroyed, and 12,453 flooded.
Public infrastructure including 1,012 schools, 55 health units and 3,489km of roads, have been destroyed.
Flooding is increasing the risk of cholera at a time when the country is struggling to contain an outbreak, since September 2022.
More than 5,200 people across 28 districts in Niassa, Gaza, Manica, Sofala, Tete, Zambezia provinces have been affected and in the past two weeks, and cases have increased by 17 per cent, reports say.
The geographical impact of the outbreak has continued to grow, rising from 18 to 29 affected districts, thereby increasing the infection rate from 0.3 per cent to 0.9 per cent in the past week.
“A combination of threats is compounding a severe humanitarian situation in Mozambique where two million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection across the northern provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula,” the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in statement.
Humanitarian partners intend to support more than 1.5 million people affected by the conflict this year alone.