the death toll rises after hurricane Idai days have ravaged Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
so far hundreds have lost their lives during the natural disaster, according to relief agencies has left one of Mozambique’s largest cities, Beira, in total ruins.
Tens of thousands believed to be trapped in the cut areas, where they can’t get away from the large volume of water that has flooded and razed several villages to the ground.
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In the area around the city of Beira, working with the authorities on high pressure to evacuate people and bring them to safety. Photo: Ritzau Scanpix
Completely destroyed
A week after the hurricane Idai struck into the country, sitting thousands of people still on rooftops and in trees and waiting for relief aid in Mozambique, reports the AFP news agency.
eye witnesses tell of chaotic scenes, where the bodies float along the roadside. To the british newspaper the Guardian describes a witness so, how hundreds of dead men, women and children lay around on the ground, while the entire community has been ‘completely wiped out’.
– On any roof, there are back, and in any wood sitting there, four, five, six or seven people. People trying to get through the floodwaters. The most primitive homes are wiped out. I think that 95 percent of all houses are gone, says the businessman Grahan Taylor to the british media.
the Witness says further to The Guardian that they fear that at least a thousand people lie buried in the ruins in the area around the Beira, which has 500,000 inhabitants.
José Itai was rescued by one of the rescue helicopters, as south Africa has sent to the firms in Mozambique. He tells that whole family is dead, and the dead bodies floating around in the Buzi river. He also saw a woman who lost her just-born baby, and as the smoke out of the arms of her and down in the water.
РAll the women that were giving birth, lost their babies, because they were forced to flee, says Jos̩ Itai to The Guardian.
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An eyewitness tells how he lost his entire family. He fears now that the bodies drifting around in the region of the Buzi river. Photo: Siphiwe Sibeko/Ritzau Scanpix
Riots in the cities
Mozambique’s minister for the environment, Celso Correia, says that at least 15,000 still need to be rescued from the floodwaters, and the authorities will do ‘everything in their power’ to help with food, water and medicine.
– But it is a race with time right now, stresses the minister on Thursday evening Danish time.
Redningspersonel and helicopters sent to troubled areas in both Mozambique and Zimbabwe from neighbouring countries such as south Africa, but the authorities find it difficult to work fast enough to ensure water and food to all those in need.
Therefore, there are reports of riots in several cities, where the people fight over the food being thrown from helicopters. The authorities estimate that in the same context, that relief is far from covering the demand from the crisis-hit populations.
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the People sitting trapped on rooftops and in the trees on the sixth day of bpde Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Photo: Siphiwe Sibeko/Ritzau Scanpix
Help us
In Zimbabwe to assess the humanitarian workers, 500 people from a single village all have lost their lives, though the official death toll from the area is 98.
A survivor from the city of Kopa telling to 1000 people are expected to be buried under the destroyed homes, which are now floating around in the area. He calls on the authorities to work faster.
– We ask you to help us to remove the bodies, so we can bury them. The survivors in the degree also in need of help, says Thokozani Copper.
the Red Cross estimates that 400,000 people made homeless by the hurricane disaster alone in Mozambique.