STORMS DESTROY 12,000 HOMES IN NAMPULA AND CABO DELGADO

Last week’s torrential rains in the northern Mozambican provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado affected almost 60,000 people and destroyed around 12,000 houses, according to government spokesperson, Deputy Health Minister Mouzinho Saide.Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, after the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), Saide said that the storms had destroyed 10,713 homes in Nampula, and 1,217 in Cabo Delgado. These were houses built mostly of flimsy materials, and were vulnerable to high winds and heavy rains.
The storms have also disrupted transport in the two provinces, making many roads impassable. The Nampula districts of Mogovolas, Angoche and Moma remain cut off from the provincial capital, Nampula city.According to the Mogovolas district administrator, Alberto Namahala, cited in Wednesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, the road to Nampula city was cut when a metallic bridge over the Mutucuti river was swept away. 

A man named Jose Salimo, who tried to drive over the bridge, died when his car was seized by the raging waters.“We can’t reach Moma either, because of craters opened at each end of the bridge over the Mucucuza river”, said Namahala, while the interruption in traffic to Angoche ws due to problems with a bridge over the Mutuazi river.Communications within the districts are also proving difficult or impossible. The head of the District Economic Activities Services in Angoche, Miguel Massunda, said that currently the only other part of the district accessible by road from Angoche town is the Namitoria administrative post.Much of the Aube administrative post has suffered flooding and transport between Angoche town and Aube is only possible by boat. As for the cholera epidemic in Tete, Zambezia, Nampula and Niassa provinces, Saide said the death toll now stands at 47.

Tete remains the worst hit province with 3,062 diagnosed cases and 22 deaths. Most of the cases (1,887) have been in the provincial capital, Tete city. There have also been 774 cases in the adjacent district of Moatize, and 401 cases in Mutarara.In Nampula, there have been 1,232 cases and eight deaths. The epidemic has affected Nampula city, and the districts of Mecuburi, Murrupula, Lalaua, Meconta and Memba.In Niassa there have been 868 cases in three districts, and 14 deaths. In Zambezia, the outbreak has been restricted to the provincial capital, Quelimane, where there have been 289 cases and three deaths.Saide said that government is studying how to use the 40 million meticais (about 1.26 million dollars) collected from the public during campaigns of solidarity with the victims of flooding in the central and northern provinces.He said that some of the money could be used to buy vehicles to transport people and goods in the affected areas.