MAPUTO, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the tropical cyclone Gombe in Mozambique has risen to 53, the country's largest newspaper Jornal Noticias reported on Thursday.
Following the national disaster relief agency's announcement that 20 people were killed due to the storm in the coastal Nampula province within the same day, 31 more deaths were confirmed in the administrative post of Lunga, the province's Mossuril district on Wednesday night, according to the report.
The other two victims were registered in the neighboring Zambezia province days ago.
The report quoted the State Secretary for the province of Nampula, Mety Gondola, who managed to reach Lunga, a place still isolated due to the cut-off of road access.
The official described the situation as grim, adding that local authorities were working to establish the definitive number of victims.
"The identification of 20 bodies has already been done, now remain the rest 11 bodies," said Gondola to the paper.
The death toll could be even higher, as rescue operations are still being carried out in the most affected districts including Mogincual, Ilha de Mozambique, Monapo and Mossuril, in Nampula.
The province of Nampula has 26 transit centers, which accommodate 14,843 people affected by the cyclone, says the report.
According to the last report by the National Institute for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction (INGD), the number of people affected by the cyclone was 400,175 as of Wednesday, corresponding to 77,279 families, while the number of houses destroyed was 74,952.
The INGD report indicates that 41 health units, 691 classrooms in 301 schools were destroyed, affecting 75,607 students and 1,221 teachers. ■