Mozambique's president to speak to nation about cyclone

In this Tuesday, March 26, 2019, photo, an elderly man lies on the ground after his bag of food was snatched from him in a scramble for bags of rice delivered by the South African Airforce helicopter at Nyamatande Village, Mozambique, following the devastating Tropical Cyclone Idai. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Phill Magakoe)

BEIRA, Mozambique – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi is to address the nation Wednesday about how his government is responding to the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai, which has killed more than 460 people in his country and made 1.8 million people in need of urgent help.

Nyusi last week estimated that 1,000 people had been killed by the cyclone, after he flew over the vast expanses of the flooded plains of central Mozambique. The death toll could be higher than 1,000 said emergency workers, who add that the actual figure may never be known.

Health workers are opening clinics across the hard-hit city of Beira to try to reduce the threat of cholera and other waterborne diseases.