The Latest: Aid arriving in Zimbabwe for cyclone victims
Posted March 20, 2019 3:24 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CHIPINGE, Zimbabwe — The Latest on Cyclone Idai and the flooding damage to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi (all times local):
12:25 p.m.
More humanitarian aid is being pledged for the three southern African countries badly hit by a tropical cyclone that has killed hundreds of people.
The Emirates News Agency cites the Emirates Red Crescent as saying that the United Arab Emirates will provide 18.3 dirhams ($4.9 million) to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa told survivors that a planeload of aid from the UAE is expected to arrive in the capital, Harare, later Wednesday.
And the chairman of the African Union Commission says the continental body will provide $350,000 in immediate support to the countries.
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Zimbabwe is retrieving and burying bodies Wednesday as Mozambique begins three days of national mourning for victims of Cyclone Idai.
The death toll is rising in both countries, but the full number of those killed and damage done will only be known when torrential floodwaters recede. Persistent rains are forecast through Thursday so it will be days before the plains of Mozambique drain toward the Indian Ocean.
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa is to visit on Wednesday the hard-hit mountain community of Chimanimani on the eastern border with Mozambique. Some 300 people may have died in Zimbabwe as a result of the cyclone, say officials.
Mozambican officials say its death toll is 200 and rising. Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said earlier this week he expects fatalities to be more than 1,000.
The Associated Press
