MAPUTO (Reuters) – Tropical cyclone Gombe has killed at least 53 people since it hit Mozambique a week ago, authorities said on Thursday, in a sharp rise from earlier estimates.
Around another 80 people have been injured and 400,000 affected since the cyclone swept into northern and central areas of the country, flooding towns and destroying houses, the figures showed.
The initial death toll in the southern African country was estimated at seven.
The data from the National Institute of Disaster Management (INGD) showed Gombe had completely destroyed 45,000 homes and partially destroyed 30,000.
In the past few years, southern Africa has suffered repeated devastating cyclones of the type that used to be relatively rare, and scientists believe climate change is fuelling their intensity via warming of the Indian Ocean.
Tropical Storm Ana killed at least 88 people across southern and eastern Africa in January.
(Reporting by Manuel Mucari; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
