Mozambique: helpers talk about the desperate situation in the country

First the rain came to Mozambique, torrential. Cyclone "Idai" followed, with wind speeds around 200 kilometers per hour - and new volumes of water. The storm has moved on, but it is still raining. So strong that the levels continue to rise.

"The situation is very bad because one disaster is followed by another," says Hanne Roden in a telephone conversation with SPIEGEL. She lives and works in Mozambique for more than 30 years. Since August 2017 she is Program Director of the German Red Cross in the country. Roden is in the capital Maputo, colleagues send her reports and pictures.

"When the first photos arrived, I could see it was very serious, there are areas where not a single house has stopped, in some places the water is several meters high, people have saved themselves on trees or roofs," says Roden. "This sight, combined with the knowledge that the worst floods are yet to come, that trees and roofs may not be high enough - that's where it really hit me."

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Large parts of Mozambique are flooded, there is talk of an "ocean inland". The water and the storm, one of the worst in southern Africa for many years, have devastated much of the country, including the coastal city of Beira, which has more than half a million inhabitants. There, up to 90 percent of homes are destroyed. Fallen trees block the streets, no shop or market has opened.

"This cyclone left only death and destruction," says Fabrizio Graglia. The 47-year-old has been living in Mozambique for eleven years and has been the director of the NGO Esmabama, a partner organization of Caritas, for five years. Monday night - a few days after the storm - he flew by his own account from Beira to Maputo. "It says on television that up to two million people are affected," says Graglia. "That's the worst thing I've seen in this country."

In Beira, for example, the roof of a hospital collapsed, says Graglia. More than 160 people died, including five newborns. Halfway intact buildings served as a haven for hundreds of families who had lost everything. Survivors, according to Graglia, told that whole villages and all inhabitants were simply gone. In aerial photographs are corpses drifting on the water.

Help is already running in Beira, says Graglia, for example through the United Nations or the World Food Program. But the city is currently not accessible by land. Several districts in the country are completely cut off from the outside world.

The government has declared a state of emergency to mobilize more help. On Wednesday began a three-day days of mourning, as President Filipe Nyusi explained. More than 300 dead have been confirmed, Nyusi has at least one thousand victims. The Red Cross expects up to 400,000 temporarily homeless people.

It is hard to imagine that the country can handle the catastrophe alone. Mozambique is one of the ten poorest countries in the world according to a UN index. The United Nations has now released $ 20 million to help fund the relief effort. The Tanzanian government, which borders Mozambique in the south, sent more than 200 tons of relief supplies to the region.

"The water had swallowed the road, there was only one lake with crocodiles"

Fabrizio Graglia reports that "Idai" was so strong that smaller animals were simply blown away - now they hung dead in trees or on houses. Hardly any building has withstood the forces of nature. It has been protected with mattresses from flying objects such as glass splinters.

A few days after the storm, Graglia tried to get to his organization by car. "After 40 kilometers we had to turn back," he says. "The water had swallowed the road, there was only a lake with crocodiles."

Two teenagers were stuck in the middle of the lake on a tree - as well as a snake. The teenagers could not have fled because of the crocodiles. "It was impossible for us to help them," says Graglia. His driver informed the people in the village of teens. He does not know what happened to the two of them.

"Tomorrow malaria and cholera will be the problem"

It is estimated that thousands of people are stuck on roofs, hills or trees. It takes helicopters or especially boats to rescue them.

But according to Hanne Roden, there are not enough boats. Because of the proclamation of national emergency, it is still possible to request additional equipment and distribute in the country. Additional helicopters should be there soon, freighters should bring food and equipment. Fabrizio Graglia reports that he has only eaten oranges and avocados for days. Drinking water is rationed. "In the medium to long term, it is a huge problem that large agricultural areas have been flooded," says Hanne Roden. "The harvest is gone."

However, acute is not only lacking in food and drinking water, but also needed in medicine, says Fabrizio Graglia - alone so as not to fall into the next disaster. "Now the problem is that there is no food and no medication, tomorrow malaria and cholera will be the problem."

Hanne Roden shares this assessment. "We have to expect a lot of sickness from polluted water, people are wet, they are cold, they do not have a dry place to go," she says. All the more important now are water filters, blankets and tents.

What happens when the floods have receded? People will return to their homes - or what's left of them. Roden says it urgently needs so-called "shelter kits" - packages with tarpaulins, ropes, nails and other things that can be used to build makeshift accommodation. This was important now in the detention centers for those affected, and it would be important if people returned to their home regions to their destroyed homes.

The situation is desperate, but Fabrizio Graglia has not resigned - thanks to his staff. "People give me hope," he says. "On Sunday I talked to one of our workers, he lost his house and was injured in the head, but he came to work anyway because he wanted to help."

Part of the truth, however, is also: Fabrizio Graglia has 167 employees in the district of Beira. He has not heard anything from 120 so far.