Mozambique calls for help five months after cyclone

Cyclone Idai roared through central Mozambique in March. It made some two lakh people homeless and destroyed some two million acres of crops. Five months after the cataclysmic storms, thousands of Mozambicans are rebuilding their homes, fields, and lives.

Mozambique: Five months after cyclone Idai tore through Mozambique, families are still struggling to rebuild their homes and lives. Aid agencies are now calling for more help to assist their recovery.

In March, cyclone Idai roared through central Mozambique, it made some two lakh people homeless and destroyed some two million acres of crops.

Weeks later a second cyclone hit northern Mozambique, the first time since record-keeping began that two major cyclones hit the southern African country in a single year and together the two storms affected 3 million people, according to the United Nations(UN).

Five months after the cataclysmic storms, thousands of Mozambican farmers are rebuilding their homes, fields, and lives.

A farmer, Fernando Amis, and his three wives are constructing seven buildings of wooden poles that they plaster with mud and cover with thatched roofs.

Amis said, "What happened here was really sad. We had never experienced such a devastating event like cyclone Idai. It was really sad and it destroyed many things."

The family benefited from living near Gorongosa National Park which distributed immediate food aid, blankets, and seeds to help those living in the buffer zones around the park.

When the cyclone first hit, the park responded by buying food and delivering it to the flooded families.

"We lost our food, so we need support to get food," said Amis.

After losing their entire maize crop, the Amis family is now growing a crop of sugar beans that will provide food for their 12 children and will also be sold for cash.

According to aid organizations, across central and northern Mozambique more efforts are needed to help families recover from the cyclones.

The UN emergency appeal for Cyclone Idai received only 46 percent of 282 million US Dollars requested as of July.

According to Refugee International, Mozambique, a low-lying country with an Indian Ocean coastline more than 1,500 miles long, will be prone to damaging cyclones in the future. Many displaced families should be helped to resettle on higher land that is less susceptible to flooding.