Aid response mounts for Cyclone Dikeledi victims in SE Africa: UN

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations and aid partners are responding to deadly Tropical Cyclone Dikeledi battering southeast Africa with high winds and heavy rain, UN humanitarians said on Monday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the UN partners began working with local authorities after the cyclone made landfall on Saturday in northern Madagascar, the same area hit by deadly Cyclone Chido nearly a month ago.

OCHA's latest ReliefWeb status alert reported that Dikeledi's center was over the Mozambique Channel, approximately 75 km east of the coast of Nampula province in northeastern Mozambique. It passed just south of Mayotte, the island where Cyclone Chido inflicted heavy death and destruction.

The government of Madagascar reported that three people were killed and more than 350 displaced to several temporary sites. More than 5,200 people were directly affected, nearly 1,300 homes flooded, and five health centers were damaged.

Humanitarian partners distributed water treatment supplies and water, sanitation and hygiene kits.

OCHA said the world body and humanitarian partners in Mozambique continue to assist those affected by Chido, which killed more than 170 people in Madagascar, Mayotte and Malawi.

The World Food Programme reported reaching more than 190,000 Cyclone Chido victims in five districts with one-week food rations as of Saturday. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and its partners distributed more than 800 kits of core relief items to more than 4,000 people.

UNHCR also said it stepped up efforts to assess protection concerns in parts of Cabo Delgado province where displaced people are sheltering. Following Cyclone Chido, they lacked shelter or sufficient access to clean water and sanitation facilities. The loss of livelihoods, particularly in agriculture, has compounded their challenges in rebuilding their lives.

The United Nations and its partners aim to provide humanitarian assistance to more than 400,000 people affected by Cyclone Chido. But to do that, they urgently need additional funding, OCHA said.