Transit through Central Asia jumps 70% in four years
Transit flows through Central Asian countries have increased by 70% between 2020 and 2024, according to the Eurasian Development Bank’s Transport Pr...
Residents of Mecufi, located south of Pemba in northern Mozambique, began to rebuild their lives on Wednesday, December 18, after their homes were destroyed by Cyclone Chido over the weekend.
According to Nicholas Wassuna, UNICEF's chief field officer in Pemba, more than 90% of homes in the area were damaged or destroyed by the storm.
As of Wednesday morning, the official death toll in Mozambique has increased to 45, up from 34 a day earlier, according to government sources. In neighboring Malawi, the death toll rose to 13 after the storm passed through the French territory on the island of Mayotte and hit continental Africa.
Cyclone Chido, which struck northern Mozambique over the weekend, brought heavy rains and strong winds, causing widespread damage in Cabo Delgado and Nampula provinces. Thousands of people were displaced, homes were destroyed, and critical infrastructure, including roads and communication networks, was severely damaged, hampering relief efforts in areas that were already home to large numbers of displaced individuals.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed deep concern over the impact on vulnerable communities and is working closely with the Mozambican government and humanitarian partners to provide immediate assistance.
Within the first 48 hours of the storm, UNHCR responded by providing aid at Pemba's largest accommodation center, where more than 2,600 people received emergency supplies, including blankets, sleeping mats, mosquito nets, and shelter materials.
While the full extent of the damage in rural areas remains unclear, early assessments suggest that about 190,000 people urgently need humanitarian aid. Thirty-three schools have been affected, and nearly 10,000 homes were destroyed. In some villages, only a few houses remain standing.
Years of conflict, forced displacement, and economic hardship have left communities in the region highly vulnerable. For many displaced families, Cyclone Chido has worsened their plight, washing away what little they had managed to rebuild.
Ahead of the storm, UNHCR and its partners had pre-positioned emergency relief supplies and helped the government disseminate disaster preparedness messages across the affected provinces via TV, radio, WhatsApp, and hotlines. Local disaster management committees were also supported in prioritizing aid for the most vulnerable populations.
While some districts in Nampula were affected, the more than 8,000 refugees, mostly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, living in Maratane camp, reported minimal damage. This suggests that recent efforts to build climate-resilient housing have been effective.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A tsunami threat was issued in Chile after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Drake Passage on Friday. The epicenter was located 135 miles south of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Navarino Island.
The war in Ukraine has reached a strategic impasse, and it seems that the conflict will not be solved by military means. This creates a path toward one of two alternatives: either a “frozen” phase that can last indefinitely or a quest for a durable political regulation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Moscow on Wednesday that the United States and its allies would "impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression" if the war in Ukraine does not come to an end.
Kenya's veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who was imprisoned multiple times while fighting one-party autocracy and ran five times unsuccessfully for president, died aged 80 on Wednesday in India.
Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban administration have agreed to a temporary ceasefire for 48 hours starting 6:00 p.m. Pakistan local time (1300 GMT) on Wednesday, Islamabad said, after fresh clashes erupted between the neighbours.
Trade tensions between the United States and China are once again flaring up, as President Donald Trump has signalled that he may consider ending certain trade relations with Beijing.
The insolvency-related fraud trial of fallen Austrian property tycoon Rene Benko entered its second day on Wednesday, with a ruling expected in the afternoon in the first case connected to the collapse of his Signa property empire.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment