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Cyclone Idai: International aid agencies easing 'chaos and confusion' in Mozambique

Authorities in the disaster-hit African country know what they are dealing with and have begun to tackle it.

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British aid is being delivered to Mozambique
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Where there was chaos and much confusion, now there is action at the humanitarian response centre in the Mozambican city of Beira.

Authorities and international aid agencies know what they are dealing with and have begun to tackle it.

Cyclone Idai has displaced 230,000 - and many more lack food and clean water.

UNICEF warns that 900,000 children have been affected - either orphaned, separated from their families or lacking basic necessities.

Much of the aid has come from Britain
Image: Much of the aid arriving in Mozambique has come from Britain

However, help has arrived and much of it is from Britain.

The Department for International Development (DIFD) has sent 20 tonnes of aid to Mozambique along with specialised equipment like forklifts.

The agency has also sent water purifiers - a piece of equipment that is absolutely crucial in the battle to prevent the spread of cholera.

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That there will be outbreaks of this potentially fatal water-borne disease has already been accepted.

Helicopters are being used to deliver aid to those who need it
Image: Helicopters are being used to deliver aid to those who need it
People in Mozambique are in need of international aid
Image: People in Mozambique are in need of international aid

Today, the Mozambican minister for land and the environment, Celso Correia, said their strategy was all about containing it.

"We have a lot of diarrhoea but teams are working on the ground to see if it is really cholera or not but… there will be cholera.

"The government is putting (in) prevention and treatment centres specific for cholera in the districts affected."

DIFD is also supplying high energy biscuits and a nutritional paste, which do not sound particularly appetising, but benefit from the fact that they do not need to be cooked.

No aid, no government - just a rusty fishing boat to flee Cyclone Idai carnage in Mozambique
No aid, no government - just a rusty fishing boat to flee Cyclone Idai carnage in Mozambique

The deck of the fishing boat was packed with residents from a town where people are now surviving on the roofs of their homes.

Many people lack dry firewood or pots to make their meals in.

The supplies have to get to the people on the ground and that is where the World Food Program's (WFP) helicopter comes in.

Sky News witnessed British aid being delivered to an isolated spot called Goonda.

Floodwaters have now receded in much of the country
Image: Floodwaters have now receded in much of the country

Until a few days ago this town was entirely inaccessible but the floodwaters have been receding and the pilots can now put their aircraft down.

A human chain was assembled as the helicopter landed and the cargo was unloaded in a matter of minutes.

A large crowd turned up to watch.

One man said: "We're all suffering."

Pedro Matos, emergency co-ordinator for the WFP in Mozambique, is also worried about the people who live in other parts of this district.

He said: "There are parts that we know and (where) we are doing operations but we need to keep some flexibility.

"For instance, yesterday, we reached a place 18km from here that we didn't know … so we redirected a helicopter."

Pedro Matos is the emergency coordinator for the World Food Programme in Mozambique
Image: Pedro Matos is the emergency co-ordinator for the World Food Programme in Mozambique

This disaster demands an international response with resources that the government of Mozambique cannot provide.

Today the country's ex-president, Joaquim Alberto Chissano, expressed his thanks.

He said: "I am very much grateful for the response from the international community … because the knowledge of what is happening when there are calamities like this comes a bit late and the government does not know how to make an appeal because the government may not what is happening."

Mr Chisanno wants the UK to stick around and the British public have answered his call, raising £18m in the recent Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal.

It will go some way to help this battered nation rebuild.