Mozambican authorities are looking to mobilise aerial resources after Cyclone Jude crashed into the northern province of Nampula, leaving many isolated by floodwaters and in desperate need of assistance, reports the online Portuguese newspaper Observador.
The cyclone slammed into Mozambique early Sunday morning in the Mossuril district in Nampula, bringing 140-kilometre-per-hour winds and gusts of up to 195 kph. Heavy rains and severe thunderstorms triggered flooding in multiple districts.
At least nine people have died, with 20 injured and over 100,000 people affected, according to preliminary reports by the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (known by its Portuguese initials INGD).
Infrastructure also took a hit with more than 20,000 houses completely or partially destroyed, as well as 59 schools, 28 health units, four places of worship, and one public building.
Local authorities and international aid groups have been unable to reach the most affected communities, particularly in the Nacala and Ilha de Moçambique districts, impacting their ability to assess damage and provide assistance. “We will have to mobilise aerial resources to speed up” that process, Luísa Meque, the president of the INGD, told media.
[See more: Flooding in Mozambique traps thousands as rainy season worsens]
Tropical Cyclone Jude affected areas well beyond Nampula, as well, with torrential rains impacting eight other Mozambican provinces on Monday, followed by alerts that potentially twice as much rain – up to 200 mm in 24 hours – would fall in Nampula, Niassa and Zambezia provinces on Tuesday.
Risks of flash flooding in those provinces, as well as main rivers overflowing and high winds, led the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to declare at least 747,000 people at high risk and 2.1 million at moderate risk in Mozambique.
At present, Jude is on its way out of the country, travelling southeast across the Mozambique channel where it is expected to make landfall on the southwestern coast of Madagascar between 14 and 15 March. Yet even as the skies clear, government authorities and humanitarian aid organisations face consistent obstacles, Jude having washed away main roads, bridges and culverts.
Tropical Cyclone Jude marks the third major storm to hit the country in the last three months, their impacts concentrated in northern Mozambique. Cyclones Chido and Dikeledi hit between December of last year and January, impacting 684,000 people, mainly in Nampula and neighbouring Cabo Delgado Province.
The frequency and severity of storms in Mozambique – including Cyclone Freddy, a monstrous storm that ravaged the country for more than a month in 2023 – presents significant challenges as people, governments and aid organisations are stretched thin by the repeated severe weather, which is a result of climate change.
