'Race against time': UN makes emergency appeal as Cyclone Idai death toll tops 750
BEIRA, Mozambique – The United Nations is making an emergency appeal for $282 million for the next three months to help Mozambique start recovering from the devastation of Cyclone Idai.
The U.N. funding will be used to provide water, sanitation, education and restoration of the livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of displaced people, U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said Monday.
He said separate appeals will be made shortly for Zimbabwe and Malawi, also hard-hit by the cyclone.
Lowcock said funds for cyclone victims are starting to come through, including 22 million pounds from the United Kingdom, but are far outstripped by the needs.
UNICEF head Henrietta Fore just visited Mozambique’s ravaged port city of Beira and said “it’s a race against time” to help the displaced and prevent disease.
Authorities in Mozambique say that with a key road open to the badly damaged city of Beira, conditions on the ground improving and more international help arriving, vital aid to those hit by Cyclone Idai should now flow more freely.
Cyclone Idai’s death toll has risen above 750 in the three southern African countries hit 10 days ago by the storm, as workers rush to restore electricity, water and try to prevent outbreak of cholera.
More: Cyclone Idai leaves 'real disaster' in Mozambique, with more than 1,000 people feared dead
The number of dead in Mozambique has risen to 446 while there are 259 dead in Zimbabwe and at least 56 dead in Malawi for a three-nation total of 761.
The death toll is “very preliminary,” said Mozambique’s environment minister, Celso Correia, who said it is expected to rise.
The U.S. military will join the number of international aid groups assisting in providing food and medical care to those affected by the massive cyclone, one of the worst natural disasters in southern Africa in recent history.
About 228,000 displaced people are now in camps across the vast flooded area of Mozambique, said Correia, who is the government’s disaster coordinator. It is still too early to give a number of missing, he said.
Diarrhea is reported in camps, but Correia said it was too early to say whether it is cholera. He has said that it is almost certain that the deadly disease will emerge.
Aid teams are going to high points on islands created by Cyclone Idai and finding “a lot of people,” Correia said.
Until all areas can be reached and assessed, it is impossible to say the disaster response effort has turned a corner, he said.
When asked by journalists about people found sheltering in a school along the newly opened main road to Beira who said they had not eaten since the storm, Correia said the aid had to be prioritized according to necessity.
At least they were found and aid is coming, he said. “They can still hang on for a few days.”
More: Mozambique mourns, Zimbabwe buries dead from Cyclone Idai
Correia defended Mozambique’s storm warning system, asserting that people knew weeks in advance that trouble was coming. More than 300,000 people were warned in advance, he said. “All reports say the system worked,” he said.
Some residents of Beira and Buzi, however, have said they had heard nothing to indicate the scale of the cyclone and were shocked by the quickly rising waters, and some have expressed anger at the government for not giving more warning.
President Donald Trump directed the U.S. military to support relief efforts to help Mozambique with the destruction caused by more than a week ago, military officials said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Race against time': UN makes emergency appeal as Cyclone Idai death toll tops 750
