The Handicap International team has been organising boats to cross the bay from Beira into one of the harder impacted areas. © C.Briade/Handicap International

The Handicap International team has been organising boats to cross the bay from Beira into one of the harder impacted areas. © C.Briade/Handicap International

A recent UN report estimated the death toll as a result of cyclone Idai had risen to 446 people as of 24 March, with many more missing. 

When Delano spoke with Briade, who serves as the local organisation’s marketing and communications director, he was at the airport in Beira, the fourth-largest city in Mozambique, where he and others were gathered, as it was one of the only places they were able to access wifi.  

Briade said that when he arrived early on the morning of 29 March, there were five planes full of humanitarians, and there have been helicopters “nonstop in and out, discharging aid and materials”. The impact is clearly visible along the coast, with plenty of fallen trees. He and his team had been assessing feasibility, organising boats to cross the bay from Beira into one of the harder impacted areas.

“People are starting, slowly but surely, to cope with the situation,” he says, although he acknowledges there is a lot that needs to be done. Briade will be on the ground until 7 April, possibly longer if necessary.

HI is using its logistics facility, which Briade says is “quite specialised in humanitarian-to-humanitarian services”, facilitating other agencies to distribute aid. 

But it also is also doing traditional humanitarian work itself, including food distribution to some 12,000 families. 

 

© C.Briade/Handicap International 

Locally, HI had already been working with 6,000 of the most vulnerable members of the community in the area, which included poor children, the elderly, and others. “For those people, [the situation] is probably worse than it was before,” he says, adding that his team wants to “identify where they are and what their situation is, to facilitate their access to humanitarian aid, and see if they need support with a medical or surgical intervention.”

Mounting health, food concerns

On Thursday, it was confirmed that the five recorded cases of cholera in the cyclone-hit area had jumped to 139 cases in one day. “It’s a very communicable disease, easy to treat, but you need hygienic conditions, which are not present,” Briade said. HI has stated on its site that it predicts it will distribute some 8,000 hygiene kits, which contain basic supplies such as soap. 

There are concerns about food--also for the longer term, given how many crops have been destroyed, around some 500,000 ha in total, per the UN estimate. Locals already know the rice harvest they had anticipated in August will not be available, and this lack of crop will impact them in the months and years to follow. 

For more information on work being done in light of the cyclone Idai aftermath, visit Handicap International Luxembourg.