Cyclone Idai: UN urges more support from Int'l community

The international community has been urged to increase its financial support to the thousands of victims of Cyclone Idai.

The United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, David Beasley’s call comes during a two-day visit to devastated areas of Mozambique on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We need financial support from the international community. These people’s lives have been devastated, they have no livelihoods now, they’ve lost their homes, they’ve lost their farms, they’ve lost their crops, they’ve lost loved ones. And they’re going to need help at least for the next 6 months to 12 months to get their feet back on the ground “, he said.

According to the UN, nearly 2 million people have been affected by Cyclone Idai and its aftermath in Mozambique alone. The cyclone flattened homes and provoked widespread flooding when it made landfall near the port city of Beira on March 14, home of half a million people. The Cyclone then hit neighbouring Zimbabwe and Malawi.

The WFP estimates 400,000 hectares of crops were washed away just weeks ahead of the main April-May harvest.

Livestock, fisheries, other important sources of income, have been severely affected.
Survivors, in Beira, and in the nearby town of Buzi, or Guara Guara, have lost everything and are sheltering in schools and churches, some of which were roofless.

Since March 14, the U.N. food agency has provided assistance to more than 150,000 people. It aims to reach half a million in the coming weeks.

Sixty metric tons of high energy biscuits have already been dropped by helicopter to people stranded by the floodwaters, but the WFP estimates 86,000 metric tons of commodities will be needed in the next three months.

The agency says it needs $140 million for the coming three months.