The death toll from Cyclone Chido in Mozambique has increased to 73, the National Institute of Risk and Disaster Management has said.
At least 66 of the deaths occurred in the northern Cabo Delgado province, the disaster centre said on Thursday.
Four were killed in Nampula province and three in Niassa, further inland, it said, adding that one person was missing.
More than 540 people were reported injured by the cyclone, which brought winds of approximately 260 kilometres per hour (161 miles per hour) and heavy rainfall of about 250 millimetres (10 inches) in 24 hours, the centre said.
Chido made landfall in Mozambique on Sunday after tearing through the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, where there are fears that hundreds of people may have been killed.
A woman and her children return to their damaged house after Cyclone Chido in Pemba, Mozambique, December 18, 2024 [Shafiek Tassiem/Reuters]
More than 39,100 homes were destroyed and more than 13,400 others partially destroyed, it said. More than 329,500 people were affected by the storm, Mozambique’s disaster centre noted.
Chido struck a part of northern Mozambique that is regularly battered by cyclones and is already vulnerable because of conflict and underdevelopment.
UNICEF’s Mozambique spokesman Guy Taylor said the situation across large swaths of northern Mozambique can be described as “devastation”.
“This is an area of the country where many, many people are already living in extremely precarious circumstances. Mozambique is a country where we already have 3.4 million children in need of humanitarian assistance,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Even before this crisis, many people, including children, families, have lost everything. We saw houses, whole villages completely smashed to smithereens, really. So people need shelter.”
After sweeping over Mozambique, the cyclone moved into Malawi where it killed 13 people and injured dozens of others, according to that country’s disaster management agency.
Destruction in Mayotte
Meanwhile, at least 31 people have been confirmed dead in the French overseas territory of Mayonette, and more than 1,500 people were injured, including more than 200 critically, French authorities said.
France has requested 10,000 tents and emergency accommodation from the European mechanism to aid Mayotte, said the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.
People on storm-ravaged Mayotte implored French President Emmanuel Macron to do more to help on Thursday, as he toured the overseas territory.
A person walks in a flooded street after heavy rains in the aftermath of Cyclone Chido, in Mamoudzou, Mayotte, France, December 19, 2024 [Yves Herman/Reuters]
Winds howled at more than 220km/h (136mph) and peeled the roofs and walls from homes that collapsed around the people sheltering inside.
In the shantytown Kaweni, on the outskirts of the capital Mamoudzou, a swath of hillside homes was reduced to scraps of corrugated metal, plastic, piles of bedding and clothing, and pieces of timber marking the frame where homes once stood.
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