Mamoudzou, France

Monday January 13, 2025

Cyclone Dikeledi arrived in Mozambique on Monday after claiming three lives in Madagascar and causing extensive damage in the French archipelago of Mayotte, a month after Chido wreaked havoc in the Indian Ocean.

In Madagascar, torrential rains and strong winds hit the north of this poor island, where houses are often fragile, hard on Saturday night.

In addition to the three deaths, at least 920 people were affected, mainly in the district of Vohémar, known for its vanilla production, according to the Disaster Management Office.

Dikeledi, which has intensified in recent hours, made landfall “at the stage of a tropical cyclone over the province of Nampula”, in Mozambique, early Monday afternoon, according to Météo-France.

According to the French weather institute, Dikeledi, which is currently generating average winds of 140 km/h, with peaks of 195 km/h, will pass over Nampula province on Monday afternoon and into the night. It will bring heavy rain to the provinces of Nampula, Cabo Delgado and Zambezia.

Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi called on the population to be cautious in the face of this “category 3 tropical cyclone”, which is generating “heavy rainfall, more than 100 millimeters in 24 hours, and violent thunderstorms”.

“Prepare a basic emergency kit”, with ‘food, water, basic medicines for those who can afford them, blankets, lamps for lighting’, and ‘go immediately to a safe shelter and stay there until the authorities give you further instructions’, he hammered.
He also urged residents to “take small boats out of the water” and put them in a safe place.-

Kashkasi –

According to Météo-France, Dikeledi will then approach the west coast of the Madagascan province of Toliara.
This new cyclone comes a month after Chido, which killed at least 120 people and injured almost 900 in Mozambique, and at least 39 people and injured more than 5,600 in Mayotte, destroying a large number of makeshift and permanent homes.
Cyclones usually develop in the Indian Ocean between November and March. This year, surface waters in the area are close to 30°C, providing more energy for the storms.
In Mayotte, residents spent a second night confined to their homes, but the cyclonic red alert issued on Saturday evening was lifted at 3:00 pm local time (12:00 GMT) by the prefect.

Nevertheless, the archipelago remains under orange vigilance for “heavy rain and thunderstorms”, as a monsoon phenomenon, the Kashkasi, is expected on an island still weakened by the passage of Chido less than a month ago.

The start of the new school year has been postponed and will not take place until next week at the earliest for teachers, and later for children, according to the French government.

On Sunday, Dikeledi, then a tropical storm, approached to within 100 kilometers of Mayotte, releasing torrential rains. Rivers overflowed their banks and gusts swept away tarpaulins laid over buildings to replace roofs torn off by Chido.

The human toll was “very low”, prefect François-Xavier Bieuville told the Mayotte-La 1ère channel, mentioning only five people who had received treatment “directly linked to the climatic event”.

– Flooding –

Météo-France reports that Bandrélé recorded 180 mm of water in 12 hours on Sunday, i.e. 2/3 of the rainfall in a normal January.

The far south of the island is virtually under water, with the village of Mbouini “100% flooded”, the mayor of Kani-Kéli, which includes several hamlets, told AFP.

On Sunday, “people were getting around by pirogue”, said Abdou Rachadi. Other villages suffered landslides and gullies were blocked by tree trunks, raising fears of “further flooding at the slightest rainfall”.
“We were really scared. I’ve never seen the river overflow like that”, said Kamal Madani, a resident of Chirongui.
At a bridge, some people were clearing away the debris. Among them was Maria Saïd Kalame, departmental councillor for the canton of Sada-Chirongui: “We’re on red alert, we shouldn’t be going out, but it would be more dangerous to leave this debris”, she explained.
By Sunday, nearly 3,000 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters had been pre-positioned in areas “at risk”, according to the prefect, while 80 emergency accommodation centers had been opened.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the National Assembly began examining in committee the emergency bill aimed at rapidly implementing measures for the reconstruction of Mayotte.
France’s poorest department has been suffering for years from problems linked to immigration, security, education and economic development. In an attempt to overcome these problems, the government is planning another “program law” project “in a few weeks”, according to the Minister for Overseas France, Manuel Valls.

Humaniterre with AFP