モザンビーク中部をサイクロンが直撃、洪水で７０００人避難

【ベイラＡＦＰ＝時事】アフリカ・モザンビーク中部に23日未明、サイクロン「エロイーズ」が上陸し、大きな被害が出ている。国連人道問題調整事務所（OCHA）は25日、約7000人が避難を余儀なくされ、家屋5000棟が倒壊・破損したと発表した。（写真はモザンビーク中部ブジ地区で、サイクロン「エロイーズ」による洪水被害を受けた地域。国連児童基金＜ユニセフ＞提供）
　エロイーズは２３日午前２時半（日本時間同９時半）ごろ、風速４４メートルの強風を伴って上陸し、中部の港湾都市ベイラや近隣のブジ地区に豪雨をもたらした。強風は収まったが、災害当局や援助機関によると大規模な洪水が起きている。
　国の災害対応チームは２４日、少なくとも６人が死亡、１２人が重傷を負ったと発表した。ただ、被害の全容はまだ明らかになっておらず、死傷者は今後増える恐れがある。
　主要な通信システムは多くが機能しておらず、現地の国連児童基金（ユニセフ）の緊急支援チームは迅速かつ効果的な支援を行うため被害状況の把握を急いでいる。避難所や食料、水、医療の他、未成年の虐待や搾取からの保護が直ちに必要だという。
　被災地のベイラは、２０１９年の３月と４月に相次いで強力なサイクロンが襲来し、１０００人以上が死亡する被害を受けている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/01/26-08:14）

A tropical cyclone that hit central Mozambique this weekend has displaced thousands of people and caused severe flooding in an area battered by two deadly cyclones in 2019, response teams and aid agencies said.
Cyclone Eloise made landfall in the early hours of Saturday, bringing high-speed winds followed by torrential rain over the port city of Beira, capital of Mozambique's Sofala province, and the adjacent Buzi district.
Almost 7,000 people have been displaced and over 5,000 houses destroyed or damaged in the area, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Monday, citing preliminary government figures.
National emergency response teams on Sunday confirmed six fatalities and 12 serious injuries -- numbers expected to rise as the scale of the damage is fully assessed in coming days.
So many places are flooded already and it's getting worse, said Unicef Mozambique spokesman Daniel Timme, speaking to AFP from Beira.
Rivers are collecting water and bringing it back to the Buzi River basin south of Beira, he said.
Timme said the cyclone had disproportionately affected the city's poorer neighbourhoods, where homes made of tarpaulin and corrugated iron were swept up by winds.
Hundreds have taken refuge in a school and were in urgent need of food, medicine and proper shelter, he added.
Eloise hit an area devastated by two successive super-storms in March and April 2019.
The first, Cyclone Idai, left more than 1,000 dead and caused damage estimated at around $2 billion (1.6 billion euros).
Timme said aid workers were scrambling to provide safe drinking water and avoid cholera, which broke out in temporary shelters across Beira around two weeks after Idai hit.
Unicef, the United Nations' children's agency, estimates that 176,000 people have been severely affected by Eloise, half of which are children.
Beira Mayor Daviz Simango said one of the victims was a two-year-old girl whose house collapsed while her parents were out.
We call on people to observe the principle of resilience and better reconstruction, Simango told reporters on Sunday.
Around 142,000 hectares (350,000 acres) of farmland have been swamped, according to preliminary Unicef figures, as well as 26 health centres and 76 classrooms.
Eloise has weakened into an overland depression since its Mozambique landfall and moved south towards South Africa.
Heavy rainfall has caused flooding in the country's northern Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces, as well as in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
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