Chinese team fights effects of Cyclone Idai in Mozambique

The Chinese aid team sent to cyclone-stricken Mozambique provided medical services to about 1,300 people and food to more than 1,000 on Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

The first squad offered medical services to more than 500 people in a shelter 10 kilometers away from its Beira city camp, and also disinfected an area of almost 10,000 square meters.

Having received information from an unmanned aerial vehicle, the second squad visited another shelter more than 70 kilometers away from the Chinese team's camp, carrying food and medicine, the ministry said in a statement late Thursday.

The second squad brought 60 liters of drinking water and 3,300 foodstuffs to more than 1,000 people in the shelter, and also provided medical services to more than 800 people, the ministry said.

The Chinese aid team arrived in Mozambique on Monday as the first foreign aid team sent abroad by the country’s recently established top emergency management authority.

The UN said Tuesday that Cyclone Idai has affected almost 3 million people in southern Africa, with almost 500,000 driven from their homes.

The cyclone hit Mozambique early March 15 and unleashed hurricane-force winds and rain that flooded much of the center of the country and then hit eastern Zimbabwe and Malawi.

According to an Agence France-Presse toll, compiled from government and UN figures, more than 700 people have been killed in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and hundreds are missing.