12 March 2008
Maputo — About 55,000 people lost their houses when cyclone Jokwe hit the northern Mozambican coast at the weekend, according to the official government spokesman, Deputy Education Minister Luis Covane.
Briefing reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet on Tuesday afternoon, Covane said that a total of 165,000 people in Mozambique had been affected by the cyclone. The known death toll from the storm now stands at nine.
Covane added that more than 90 classrooms and about 100 boats had been destroyed by the storm.
Jokwe is now in the south of the Mozambique Channel, where it is weakening, and it is expected to dissipate over the next two days. On its current course it is unlikely to strike either Mozambique or Madagascar again.
The Cabinet also analysed the emergency situation deriving from the floods that had hit central Mozambique from late December up to the start of this month. Covane put the number directly affected by the floods at 113,571, most of whom are now in resettlement centres.
He added that the priority work now at the resettlement centres is to demarcate plots of land where people can build new homes. Of the targeted 18,000 plots, 12,000 have already been demarcated.
The government says that it needs a further 20 million meticais (about 800,000 US dollars) to add to the emergency fund to carry out the plan to help the victims of floods normalise their lives.
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