The death toll in Mozambique has risen to 417 and over 1500 people have been injured due to Cyclone Idai now, according to the Mozambican minister Celso Correia.
Cyclone Idai smashed into the coast of central Mozambique on Friday last week, unleashing hurricane-force winds and rains that flooded the hinterland and drenched eastern Zimbabwe.
The new numbers take the combined death toll of the two neighbouring countries to 676.
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Nearly 90,000 Mozambicans have been moved into shelters, while thousands of others are still stranded in floodwaters.
The government estimates that around one million people have been affected by the storm.
“We are living an unprecedented natural disaster. A disaster that only matches major disasters,” the minister said in reports.
“Unfortunately no one in the region and in the world could predict a disaster of this size,” he said as the UN stepped up calls for aid for the ravaged and impoverished country.
(With agency inputs)