About 2,500 Mozambican refugees in Malawi due to Tropical Storm Ana are returning to Mozambique, the National Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (INGD) announced.
The returnees left 12 villages in the locality of Chilomo, administrative post of Chire, in Zambezia province, central Mozambique, fleeing storm Ana that struck the country in January, said Luisa Meque, president of INGD cited today by the daily newspaper Notícias.
The 2,500 people took refuge in the district of Sanje, in southern Malawi, where they lived in the open, with little food and no mosquito nets to prevent malaria, said in February Elias Zimba, Mozambique’s high commissioner in Malawi.
The process of return of the population is being monitored by the Mozambican and Malawian authorities, said the official, adding that once they arrive at their places of origin, the returnees receive support in agricultural inputs among other basic needs for agricultural activity.
“We are [also] explaining to the people that they should use the lowlands only for agricultural activity and fix their residences in high and safe areas,” said the INGD president.
The storm hit the Mozambican provinces of Zambezia, Nampula and Tete, leaving 25 dead and 22 injured, as well as destroying 13,600 homes and leaving more than 140,000 people homeless.
In the current rainy season the country was also battered by cyclone Gombe, in March, which caused 63 deaths and affected 736 thousand people, with destruction of numerous infrastructures, according to the authorities.
Mozambique faces several storms every year during the cyclonic and rainy season, which runs from October to April.
