UNITED NATIONS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- On the heels of killer Cyclone Kenneth, humanitarian workers in northern Mozambique are hampered by damaged infrastructure while trying to reach thousands of victims in need of aid, a UN spokesman said on Friday.
"Damaged roads and bridges continue to prevent relief teams from reaching thousands of people in need as floodwaters from Cyclone Kenneth recede," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The storm left 50 people dead -- 43 in Mozambique and seven in the Comoros, Haq said.
Nearly 45,400 houses were destroyed in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado and Nampula provinces with over 1,300 houses flooded in Cabo Delgado, according to the government of Mozambique's latest report.
More than 66,100 people had been reached earlier this week with food assistance provided by the World Food Programme, accompanying assistance provided by the National Disaster Management Institute, he said.
The spokesman said cholera control efforts are continuing with 109 cases recorded in the Pemba, Mecufi, and Metuge areas.
He said that in the Comoros, almost 186,000 people are in need of immediate multi-sectoral assistance.
Tropical Cyclone Kenneth struck the Comoros and Mozambique's northern provinces late last month after Cyclone Idai dealt a deadly blow in early March to Mozambique's mid-section, hitting landfall near Beira and continuing inland to lash southern Malawi and eastern Zimbabwe, killing more than 1,000 people in its wake.
"Tropical Cyclone Kenneth made landfall in northern Mozambique on April 25, near the border with Tanzania, in an area where no tropical cyclone has been observed since the satellite era," the World Meteorological Organization said. "There is no record of two storms of such intensity striking Mozambique in the same season."
Meteorological agencies say Cyclone Idai was the deadliest and costliest storm of the Southwest Indian Ocean Basin this season and one of the worst on record.
