Cyclone Idai, which devastated Zimbabwe’s eastern border districts of Chimanimani and Chipinge in mid March after drowning Mozambique’s second largest city of Beira, has been described by the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley as the biggest natural disaster to hit the region in living memory. The cyclone is estimated to have affectednearly three million people in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. What do we know so far about Cyclone Idai’s impact on Zimbabwe? Number of people killed The Zimbabwe government’s official deathtoll figure stood at 268 on April 2, 2019. Estimates of people killed and missing suggeststhe number could rise to 500, based on figures that the government is currentlyworking with. Number of people missing At least 200 people are reported missing, withsome believed to have been swept by flooded rivers to Mozambique, even into theIndian Ocean. Zimbabwe Local Government, Public Works andNational Housing Minister July Moyo said 82 Zimbabweans had been buried byMozambicans in the neighbouring country, including 60 who were found in oneplace. (The Herald, April 3, 2019) Identification of victims The government has said a team of pathologistswill help in the identification of some of deceased through DNA tests and will alsofacilitate visits to Mozambique by relatives of those buried there. It said neighbourly Mozambicans marooned bythe floods were forced to bury Zimbabwean Cyclone victims swept into theirbackyards because the bodies were increasingly getting into a bad state. The question of exhumations and reburialswould be considered later, according to the government. Number of affected people An estimated 100,000 people, mainly from aroundthe epicentre of the cyclone’s devastation, Chimanimani and Chipinge, wereaffected. Districts hit Mainly mountainous Chimanimani and Chipingeon Zimbabwe’s eastern border with Mozambique. The Cyclone also hit and destroyed homesand other infrastructure in several other areas, including Bikita, Gutu andZaka in Masvingo province, Chikomba in Mashonaland East and Chirumhanzu in theMidlands. Infrastructure destroyed Houses, businesses, schools, clinics, churches,roads, bridges, boreholes and water wells, electricity and telecommunications infrastructure. Farm animals, including cattle, goats,sheep and donkeys were swept away, and so were fields of crops and woodplantations. Disaster management The Zimbabwean government’s disaster response effort has been led by an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Civil Protection chaired by Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo, and has included the army in rescue operations and delivering emergency food and medicines to affected areas. Domestic response to the disaster Shell-shocked Zimbabweans across thecountry — as individuals, organisations and corporates — reacted almost instantaneouslyto the devastation of Cyclone Idai with assistance of food, clothing, water,transport and offers to help in rescue operations. Dozens of appeals and initiatives werelaunched immediately after the cyclone. Foreign Assistance The unprecedented scale of the disasterdrew in assistance from abroad, from foreign governments and internationalorganisations, including United Nations agencies specialising in humanitarianwork. Formal appeal for disaster relief assistance On April 3, 2019, the Zimbabwean government announced that its Cabinet had approved the launch of a Formal Appeal for Domestic and International Disaster Relief Assistance which will contain details of the help it requires. This would include assistance in the reconstructionof infrastructure and rehabilitation of a region that is home to about a tenthof the Zimbabwe’s population. FEATURED