Dozens dead as Cyclone Idai hits eastern Zimbabwe

At least 24 people have been reported dead with dozens missing as cyclone Idai raged through the eastern parts of Zimbabwe on Saturday.

Zimbabwe’s information ministry announced on Twitter that at least 40 other people had been injured while most of the deaths occurred in Chimanimani East.

According to Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, many houses were damaged by the storm and bridges were washed away in the eastern Manicaland province which borders Mozambique.

“The information we have so far is that over 100 people are missing,” said Joshua Sacco, an MP in Chimanimani district.

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“At least 25 houses were swept away following a mudslide at Ngangu township in Chimanimani urban. There were people inside,” a source told journalists.

Meanwhile, heavy rains had already claimed 66 lives and displaced 17,000 people in Mozambique earlier in the week, local officials said.

They had also affected neighbouring Malawi, where 56 people died and nearly a million others were affected.

Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi said: “We have compatriots suffering without hope and we have to restore hope,” he said on Friday as he set off on a three-day state visit to the kingdom that was previously known as Swaziland.

The storm also affected power supplies to neighbouring South Africa which imports electricity from Mozambique to supplement its own production.

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