Dr. Ana Nery, medical coordinator at Médecins Sans Frontières, arrived in Mozambique a few days after cyclone Idai. She describes here the situation she has observed in recent weeks in the Nhamatanda region and more particularly in the Nhampoca department, a disadvantaged rural area furrowed by MSF mobile teams.

In the Nhampoca department, the rivers were out of bed. And more than a month after the cyclone Idai, the waters have not yet ebbed away. Many villages are isolated in normal times, people live on land surrounded by rivers. So with the floods and the cyclone, the isolation is even greater. Nhatiquiriqui for example is a village consisting mainly of islets. It is on these high ground that its inhabitants live. We see families settled around the school. Others share their mud house with other families. Otherwise the crops have been flooded. The water level was so high that corn stalks were hanging on the power lines. Agriculture is the only activity in this rural area. For the 1400 inhabitants of this village, cultivating is the priority.