Pakistan condoles loss of lives in cyclone-hit Mozambique

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office on Tuesday expressed condolences over the loss of lives and damages caused by disastrous floods in Mozambique hit by Cyclone Idai, ARY News reported.

FO spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said in his Twitter message that the Pakistani government and its nationals “extended heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Mozambique on the loss of precious lives in ‘Cyclone Idai'”.

“We extend our full support and stand by our resilient Mozambique brothers and sisters in this difficult hour,” he added.

Government and People of #Pakistan extend heartfelt condolences to government and people of #Mozambique on the loss of precious lives in #CycloneIdai.

We extend our full support and stand by our resilient Mozambique brothers and sisters in this difficult hour.

— Dr Mohammad Faisal (@ForeignOfficePk) March 19, 2019

More than a thousand people are feared to have died in a cyclone that smashed into Mozambique last week, while scores were killed and more than 200 are missing in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

The city of Beira in central Mozambique bore Cyclone Idai’s full wrath on Thursday before the storm barrelled on to neighbouring Zimbabwe, unleashing fierce winds and flash floods and washing away roads and houses.

“For the moment we have registered 84 deaths officially, but when we flew over the area… this morning to understand what’s going on, everything indicates that we could register more than 1,000 deaths,” Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said in a nationwide address.

 

 

“This is a real humanitarian disaster,” he said. “More than 100,000 people are in danger”.

Aerial photographs released by a Christian non-profit organisation, the Mission Aviation Fellowship, showed groups of people stuck on rooftops with flood waters up to window level.

“The scale of damage… (in) Beira is massive and horrifying”, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said.

Ninety per cent of the city of some 530,000 people and its surrounding area has been “damaged or destroyed,” it said in a statement.