Highlights

The Union of Comoros faced a tropical cyclone - Kenneth - which landed on 24 April in the north Ngazidja Island.

UNICEF, along with the Government and humanitarian partners are providing an immediate response to support those affected by the cyclone.

A multi-sectoral Rapid Needs Assessment was initiated on 25 April with key stakeholders, including UNICEF staff. This will enable the identification of immediate needs and better indicate those sectors worst affected.

Initial estimates from assessments indicate there are seven deaths, over 200 people wounded. An estimates 45,000 people are in need of assistance, including 20,000 people internally displaced (IDPs).

Schools are closed until 29 April due to damage.

About 125 civil security personnel were deployed on the ground on the evening 24 April to support and assure the security and safety of the population.

SITUATION OVERVIEW AND HUMANITARIAN NEEDS

As of 25 April, the Union of Comoros experienced significant impact from Tropical Cyclone Kenneth, a category 1 storm (speeds of up to 110 kph). Flooding has occurred in high risk areas of the entire archipelago, mainly on the costal lines. Water tanks have lost their covers and are polluted with garbage blown in by the fierce winds or filled with sea water in many villages and the risk of contracting water-borne diseases. The situation is likely to deteriorate rapidly if urgent action is not taken to purify water tanks and the number of people affected is likely to increase. The priority focus of the response remains on health, wash, education, food, and shelter. An estimated 60 – 80 per cent of the staple crops have been destroyed.

The Comorian Government has taken the lead to respond to the crisis supported by UN agencies, the Red Crescent and local NGOs. The Government has decided, in an extraordinary Council of Ministers meeting to withhold 10 per cent of civil servants’ salaries to address the emergency and the President has also indicated that he will also provide special funds in addition to salary cuts. However, Government capacities to respond remain a key issue, particularly significant weakness in sectoral response. Partners on the ground have limited capacity and there is no cluster approach in Comoros. Limited access due to damaged roads is another important constraint. With all national transport suspended, no power supply for the past three days, phone connectivity and logistic means to move supplies around is a significant challenge. Flooding is another issue on the coast line and in Anjouan. From 24 April, Government facilities including schools were closed.

Among the affected population, it is estimated that 65 per cent use rainwater harvesting as their main source of water, while 35 per cent are connected to a water supply system. While rainwater is available, most water tanks are damaged or filled with dirt, garbage, sea water and can be considered as contaminated. The water supply system (Mbeni and Mitsamiouli) is primarily affected by lack of power, preventing pumping and hampering water supply. People have resorted to rainwater, which is available but not potable for consumption.

On 25 April, during the morning, tropical cyclone Kenneth was 131 km west of Ngazidja and continued to move away from the islands, at a speed of 15 km/h. However, the entire national territory remains affected by heavy rainfall and strong winds of 70 km/h.

Multi-sectoral needs assessments teams were deployed by Government (with the support of UN and partners) and data is being compiled. Preliminary estimates indicate there are seven deaths and 200 wounded people, with 45,000 people in need of assistance, including 20,000 IDPs. The number of displaced is likely to increase once a better indication of how many households have been destroyed is available and precise figures come from Anjouan and Mohéli. Accordingly, about 125 civil security personnel were deployed on the ground on the evening of 24 April to ensure the security and safety of populations.</s>Image copyright AFP Image caption Pemba, the regional capital, has experienced more than 2m (6.5ft) of rain and flooding

Mozambique requires urgent life-saving relief to deal with the destructive aftermath of Cyclone Kenneth, an aid organisation has said.

Save the Children says the humanitarian situation is significant and life-threatening and more funds are needed.

The UN gave Mozambique and Comoros Island $13m (£10m) for food, water and repair of infrastructure.

The death toll in cyclone-hit northern Mozambique is 38, but is expected to rise, officials say.

Meanwhile aid workers are scrambling to reach the areas that were worse hit by the cyclone.

The storm struck the southern African nation last week with winds of 220km/h (140mph), flattening villages and damaging thousands more homes.

It lost its strength, but torrential rain was still battering the area on Tuesday, with more expected.

As a result, aid efforts by air have been hindered.

It is predicted the weather system will dump twice as much rainfall as Cyclone Idai, which struck last month, leaving more than 900 dead across southern Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

The flood risk was compounded by Kenneth hitting at the end of the rainy season when river levels were already high, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) noted.

Already, Pemba, the regional capital of Cabo Delgado state, has experienced more than 2m (6.5ft) of rain and flooding.

What's the latest?

Aid workers have been trying to deliver medical and food supplies to people cut off by the flood waters before more rain falls on Tuesday.

Nicholas Finney, Save the Children's response team leader, says that poor people in the region have been hardest hit.

"Those who were already living on the brink of poverty have now been left with nothing. With donations dwindling, we're facing a critical situation," he said.

According to Mozambique's National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC), 38 people have been killed by Cyclone Kenneth, while another 35,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged.

The privately-owned O Pais website reported five people died after part of a rubbish dump collapsed onto homes in Pemba on Sunday evening. It is unclear if these deaths are recorded in the government total.

Ocha says humanitarian needs "have sky-rocketed, and the humanitarian response will need to rapidly scale up".

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Cyclone Kenneth left roads looking like waterfalls

Some 200,000 people are in danger in Pemba alone, Ocha warned. Spokesman Saviano Abreu added that the situation in the northern towns of Macomia and Quissanga was critical, while there were also worries for the cut-off island of Ibo.

But attempts to reach those areas had not been entirely successful.

"We managed to send one flight with World Food Programme (WFP) supplies of rice and biscuits, and some non-food items," Mr Abreu told news agency AFP.

"But unfortunately the weather conditions are changing too fast and threatening the operation. It's raining again and the second flight couldn't go."

This satellite image shows the cyclone over northern Mozambique and Tanzania on Friday night.

On Sunday a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was appealing for "additional resources" from the international community "to fund the response in the immediate, medium and longer term".

Is it common for two cyclones to hit back-to-back?

Tropical cyclones in this part of the Indian Ocean are not that rare.

However, according to the BBC's Environment Correspondent Matt McGrath, Cyclone Idai was the seventh such major storm of the Indian Ocean season when it struck back in March. That is more than double the average for the time of year.

What's even more unusual, however, is the fact Idai and Kenneth hit in such quick succession.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), "there is no record of two storms of such intensity striking Mozambique in the same season".

It is especially unusual in the context of the trend which has seen tropical cyclones in the region decrease slightly over the past seven decades.

But it is far too early - and too small a sample size - to say whether this frequency is a direct result of climate change. Instead, experts point to other elements making the storm's impact worse which they know are related to climate change.

"There is absolutely no doubt that when there is a tropical cyclone like this, then because of climate change the rainfall intensities are higher," Dr Friederike Otto, from the University of Oxford, told the BBC in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai.

"And also because of sea-level rise, the resulting flooding is more intense than it would be without human-induced climate change."

What is the affected area like?

Cabo Delgado province is not as densely populated as the area hit by Cyclone Idai, and there is apparently more high ground there.

That, in addition to warnings by authorities ahead of the storm, could significantly stem losses compared with Cyclone Idai.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sarah Keith-Lucas presents an update on the impact from Cyclone Kenneth

But reports said many thousands of homes had been flattened by the winds, and the area has been hit by militant Islamist violence in recent months, which could complicate humanitarian operations.

Thousands of people had already fled their homes to seek shelter from violence in camps for displaced people.</s>PEMBA, Mozambique, April 29 (Reuters) – Rains grounded aid flights in Mozambique for a second day on Monday, hampering efforts to reach survivors of Cyclone Kenneth as the death toll there jumped to 38.

Rescuers managed to use a brief break in the downpours to send one helicopter packed with aid to the island of Ibo, where hundreds of homes were flattened by the second cyclone to hit the country in less than six weeks.

But rains started again and conditions were too dangerous for the next flight to take off, the United Nations said. Roads to rural districts further north were swamped and impassable after torrential rains on Sunday.

“Unfortunately the weather conditions are changing too fast and threatening the operation,” said Saviano Abreu, a spokesman for the United Nations’ humanitarian arm OCHA.

Cyclone Kenneth slammed into the Comoros and then Mozambique’s province of Cabo Delgado on Thursday with storm surges and winds of up to 280 kph – stretching resources in a region still recovering from Cyclone Idai which struck further south in March.

The storm knocked out power and communications. Some rural communities were reduced to mounds of jumbled wood, with only the occasional structure and coconut tree left standing.

Four people died in the Comoros, the United Nations said. Mozambique’s National Institute of Disaster Management said its death toll stood at 38 on Monday – up from an earlier estimate of five – and just over 168,000 people had been affected.

After the first hit, heavy rains pounded Mozambique’s north, an area prone to floods and landslides. Information about the scale of the flooding in more remote districts remains scant.

In the port city of Pemba at least, waters had started to recede, OCHA’s Abreu said. Water was still waist-deep in some neighborhoods. One man ferried residents in a wooden boat. Others just waded through the deluge, some carrying belongings on their heads.

Idai destroyed the port city of Beira and submerged entire villages, vast swathes of land and 700,000 hectares of crops. It killed more than 1,000 people across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Forecasters have said Kenneth could drop twice as much rain as Idai on Mozambique’s north. Authorities urged people living near rivers to move to higher ground over the weekend.

The United Nations said it had released $13 million in emergency funds for Mozambique and the Comoros to provide food and water and repair infrastructure.</s>PEMBA, Mozambique (Reuters) - Torrential rain battered northern Mozambique on Tuesday, grounding aid flights and further swamping a region where a second cyclone in six weeks has killed at least 41 people.

Cyclone Kenneth slammed into Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province on Thursday with winds of up to 280 km per hour (173 mph), flattening villages, destroying crops and turning streets of the Indian Ocean port city of Pemba into raging rivers.

It followed last month’s Cyclone Idai, which struck further south, destroying the port of Beira and killing more than 1,000 people across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Tuesday’s heavy rains swelled already bursting rivers and interrupted aid operations for a third day. Only a few flights were able to take off in the morning, meaning some of the worst-hit communities remain cut off with limited supplies.

The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) said it was particularly worried about people on Ibo island, who had little food and were in the open after most homes were destroyed.

“For us it’s a frustrating day ... There is not much we can do to reach these islands now,” said WFP spokeswoman Deborah Nguyen.

More flooding may be coming, with thousands of people living in areas at risk. In Pemba, 35,000 houses were completely or partially destroyed, authorities said, while outside the city crops were destroyed and villagers waded through flooded fields with wood, salvaged maize and other products on their heads.

The confirmed death toll from Cyclone Kenneth rose on Tuesday from 38 to 41, a spokesperson for the Council of Ministers told a news conference in the capital Maputo.

It is likely to rise as officials reach all affected areas.

Pemba’s mayor Florete Matarua told local TV channel STV that a landslide at a rubbish dump on Sunday had killed at least five people, possibly in addition to the official toll.

The people were all members of the same family and several other houses had also been buried, STV reported.

Kenneth killed four people in the Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros to the north before barrelling into Mozambique, the first time on record two powerful storms had hit the southern African country in such a short space of time.

Aid agencies and others have blamed climate change.

Preliminary government assessments suggest 31,000 hectares of crops have been lost in an area already vulnerable to food shortages. Fisheries and other key sources of sustenance like coconut trees were also damaged.

“The short-, mid- and long-term availability of food is worrisome,” senior WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel said in Geneva.</s>Heavy rain battered northern Mozambique on Monday as residents and relief workers confronted devastation wrought by Cyclone Kenneth, the strongest cyclone to ever hit Africa, which killed 38 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

Roads have been washed away, fields submerged and many buildings wrecked by the storm, which came weeks after Cyclone Idai struck the Mozambican city of Beira, 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) to the south.

Cyclone Kenneth made landfall late on Thursday in Cabo Delgado province, packing wind gusts of up to 220 kilometres per hour.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described it as the strongest cyclone to ever lash the continent, and predicted further heavy rain over the coming days.

“Cyclone Kenneth made landfall at the end of the rainy season, when river levels were already high, increasing the risk of river flooding,” the UN agency said in its latest update.

“Humanitarian needs in Mozambique have sky-rocketed, and the humanitarian response will need to rapidly scale-up.”

According to figures provided by the Mozambique authorities to NGOs, around 200,000 people in Pemba city, the capital of Cabo Delgado, are in danger.

The National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC) said 38 people have died, 39 have been injured, more than 23,000 people are without shelter and nearly 35,000 homes have been either partly or completely destroyed.

Before smashing into Mozambique, the cyclone hit the Comoros islands, killing at least three people and damaging 75,000 homes.

– ‘We don’t know what we’ll do’ –

 “The water came inside the house and all the way to the backyard,” said Sumala Cabila, 23, standing in his family home in Pemba’s working-class Paquite suburb which flooded on Sunday morning.

As rain poured down and roads in the district became unpassable except for 4-wheel-drive vehicles, Cabila’s sister struggled to look after her one-month-old child.

“If it continues to rain. we don’t know what we’ll do,” he said as water streamed of his slanted roof.

Fellow resident Tina Machude, whose home was largely flattened, said she had watched houses fall one by one in the storm and floods.

“Everything was falling… properly built houses too,” she told AFP. “We went outside running, so that things wouldn’t fall on us, especially the children.

“To rebuild this home, we will have to demolish it and start again.”

In Pemba, a tourist destination, staff mopped up pools of water at a hotel and collected tree branches out of the lobby fountain, while labourers struggled to clear out the city’s drainage system blocked by flood debris.

“(We) planned to mobilise as much aid as possible to Ibo and also from there to Quissanga,” said UN OCHA official Saviano Abreu, naming two areas outside Pemba worst hit by storm damage and flooding.

“It was the priority for government and humanitarian organisations, as these two areas are in urgent need.

“We managed to send one flight with World Food Programme (WFP) supplies of rice and biscuits, and some non-food items. But unfortunately the weather conditions are changing too fast and threatening the operation. It’s raining again and the second flight couldn’t go.”

To the north of Pemba, the town of Macomia was also badly hit, with homes and businesses destroyed, roofs torn off, trees and electric pylons uprooted.

“We have grave fears for the thousands of families currently taking shelter under the wreckage of their homes. They urgently need food, water and shelter to survive the coming days,” said Nicholas Finney, head of Save the Children’s response team in Mozambique.

The northern region hit by Cyclone Kenneth is more sparsely populated than Beira, which was hit by Cyclone Idai in mid-March when about 1,000 people were killed in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

But the area has also been hard hit by deadly raids by a jihadist group over the past 18 months that the army has been unable to control.</s>The Latest: Mozambique death toll jumps to 38 after cyclone

PEMBA, Mozambique (AP) — The Latest on Cyclone Kenneth in Mozambique (all times local):

Mozambique's government says the death toll from last week's Cyclone Kenneth has jumped to 38 as flooding continues.

The new toll was announced Monday as heavy rains continued to hamper efforts to deliver food and shelter to badly hit communities. More rain is forecast in the days ahead.

Kenneth roared into northern Mozambique on Thursday, just six weeks after Cyclone Idai struck the central part of the country. Flooding caused most of the more than 600 deaths that followed.

Now aid workers say they have an "awful sense of deja vu" after Kenneth as flood waters rise.

Rains from Cyclone Kenneth, the second tropical storm to hit Mozambique within weeks, continued to pound the northeastern city of Pemba and surrounding areas causing massive flooding and destruction.

One death has been confirmed so far and 160,000 people are at risk, with more torrential rain forecast for the days ahead.

The government described the situation as "critical" in other centers of Cabo Delgado province which are unreachable by road. In a statement Sunday night, the government said the death toll could rise due to "worrying" rains.

The towns of Ibo, Macomia and Quissanga have been badly flooded and many buildings and homes destroyed. Access to those centers is currently not possible by road and the heavy rains have made air contact difficult. Safe drinking water has become scarce.</s>Second cyclone to hit Mozambique leaves five dead and homes flattened

Mozambican officials have urged those living near two rivers in the country's north to move to higher ground, as Cyclone Kenneth dumped heavy rains and caused some flooding.

The cyclone killed five people and flattened homes around Mozambique's northern coast before moving inland and pounding the province of Cabo Delgado with rain, fuelling fears rivers could burst their banks and leave huge areas under water.

The National Directorate of Water Resources Management said the Megaruma river had registered a marked increase in volume, causing some flooding in river-side and low-lying areas in the districts of Mecufi and Chiure, south of the provincial capital of Pemba.

The Messalo river was also expected to cause flooding in the districts of Muidumbe and Macomia, north of Pemba, it said in a statement.

"Faced with this scenario, [the directorate] recommends the population living in areas referred to above withdraw immediately to high and safe areas."

Cyclone Kenneth slammed into Mozambique just six weeks after Cyclone Idai, which levelled the port city of Beira before bringing deadly floods that submerged villages and vast stretches of land.

Cyclone Idai killed over 1,000 people across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

The World Food Programme warned that Cyclone 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 prone to floods and landslides.

"Worryingly, it is still raining heavily," said Daw Mohammed, CARE's director of humanitarian operations, who is in the port city of Pemba, the provincial capital.

The death toll from Kenneth — marking the most powerful storm to ever strike Mozambique's northern coast — rose to five, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, citing the Government.

It had already killed three people in the Comoros when it made landfall in Mozambique on Thursday night (local time), packing storm surges and winds of up to 280 km per hour.

UNICEF said an additional 368,000 children were now at risk in Mozambique, one of the world's poorest countries and already struggling to cope with the impact of Cyclone Idai, which left an estimated 1.85 million people in the country in need.

Michel Le Pechoux, UNICEF deputy representative in Mozambique, said the organisation was "deeply worried" that communities in Cabo Delgado — which has no history of cyclones — would not have been prepared for the scale of the storm.

"The soil is saturated with rain and the rivers are already swollen, so the emergency is likely to get worse from flooding in the next few days," he said in a statement.

With power and communications knocked out in many areas, aid agencies were struggling to assess the extent of the devastation.

Mozambican officials said almost all of the homes on the island of Ibo had been destroyed, while the neighbouring mainland district of Macomia had suffered heavy damage.

Trees were ripped from their roots and banks, petrol stations and hotels were also damaged.

Aid workers said some areas, such as Mocimboa de Praia in the north, were also a concern as there had been little communication with them.

The government and aid agencies said 30,000 people had been moved to safety before the storm struck, but it was estimated a total of almost 700,000 were at risk</s>MAPUTO - The United Nations will grant Mozambique and the Comoros Islands $13 million in emergency funds to help provide food and water and repair damage to infrastructure, the organisation said late on Sunday, after the second cyclone in a month slammed into the region.

Cyclone Kenneth crashed into the northern province of the southern African nation on Thursday just as it was recovering from Cyclone Idai that hit further south last month.

Idai, the worst tropical storm to hit the region in decades, moved into neighbouring Zimbabwe and Malawi, killing more than 1,000 people.

GALLERY: After the storm, relief & shelter for survivors of Cyclone Idai

Weather experts are warning that Kenneth could dump twice as much rain on northern Mozambique as Idai did. It has already killed five people as it unleashed heavy rains and flooding that has seen rivers burst their banks and smash whole villages.

Cyclone Kenneth hit the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado late on Thursday, flattening entire villages with winds of up to 280km/h.

The World Bank estimates Mozambique and other countries affected by the tropical storm will need over $2 billion to recover.

Mozambique also faces a cholera epidemic after the cyclone wiped out water and sanitation facilities.

“This new allocation of Central Emergency Response Fund funds will help humanitarian partners to scale up the response to address the needs of those most vulnerable in the aftermath of Cyclone Kenneth”, said UN Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock in a statement.

Earlier in April, the International Monetary Fund granted the southern African nation a $118.2 million credit facility.</s>PEMBA, Mozambique - The Latest on Cyclone Kenneth in Mozambique (all times local):

Mozambique’s government says the death toll from last week’s Cyclone Kenneth has jumped to 38 as flooding continues.

The new toll was announced Monday as heavy rains continued to hamper efforts to deliver food and shelter to badly hit communities. More rain is forecast in the days ahead.

Kenneth roared into northern Mozambique on Thursday, just six weeks after Cyclone Idai struck the central part of the country. Flooding caused most of the more than 600 deaths that followed.</s>Mozambique's government says death toll from Cyclone Kenneth jumps to 38 as flooding continues

PEMBA, Mozambique (AP) — Mozambique's government says death toll from Cyclone Kenneth jumps to 38 as flooding continues.
The death toll in cyclone-hit northern Mozambique has risen to 38, as aid workers struggle to reach the worst-affected areas. Seven people were also killed by the cyclone in Comoros.