Johannesburg — Some 23,000 Mozambicans have been affected by cyclone Japhet which lashed the coast this week, the government's disaster management authority the INGC told IRIN on Thursday.

The agency was still compiling figures for the number of people left homeless by the cyclone, which killed at least three people when it made landfall in the southern province of Inhambane on Monday. The winds tore the roofs off houses, brought down power lines and devastated crops.

Tents, plastic sheeting and medicine have been sent to the affected areas, INGC official Rogerio Manguele said.

"We have a contingency plan and we are trying to improve our response," Manguele added.

This is the traditional cyclone season in Mozambique. In January, tropical depression Delfina killed at least 47 people, and washed away roads and bridges and destroyed crops and homes in the northern provinces of Nampula and Zambezia.