Heavy rains pounded northern Mozambique on Saturday, fuelling fears of flooding two days after Cyclone Kenneth smashed into the coast, flattening buildings and knocking out communications.
The number of people killed has risen to five, a United Nations (U.N.) spokesperson said, citing the government. Aid agencies are struggling to assess the extent of the devastation as many areas remain cut off.
“(The) total in Mozambique is now five, according to the government,” Saviano Abreu, spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in southern and eastern Africa said.
The cyclone killed three people in the Comoros before moving on to Mozambique, which is still struggling to cope with the impact of March’s Cyclone Idai. Idai levelled the port city of Beira and brought floods that killed over 1,000 people across a swathe of southern Africa.
The World Food Programme has warned Kenneth could in the coming days dump twice as much rain on northern Mozambique, raising concerns of a repeat of the flooding in a region particularly prone to floods and landslides.