Cyclone Jokwe flays Mozambique, one killed

Tropical cyclone Jokwe lashed northern Mozambique on Sunday, killing at least one person and destroying over 500 homes, a meteorological official said.

Mussa Mustafa, head of Mozambique’s National Meteorological Institute, said the cyclone, which swept through part of Madagascar last week, is expected to intensify by Monday.

“Our [meteorological] colleagues in the coastal district of Angoche reported that one person died when his house collapsed, and we also have a number of houses which have been extensively damaged there,” Mustafa told Reuters.

Radio Mozambique reported that scores of people have fled their homes in the northern Nampula Province and national television broadcast footage of electricity pylons brought down by strong winds of up to 200km/h.

Mustafa said the risk of renewed flooding was small because the rains would hit coastal areas and flow into the ocean.

Tens of thousands of people in Mozambique were forced to flee their homes earlier this year in what the United Nations said could be the worst floods in memory, engulfing farmland and wrecking roads and bridges.—Reuters