Tropical storm Chalane is drifting towards Africa’s eastern coast with winds of 120 kilometres per hour and is expected to make landfall in Mozambique.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said this on Wednesday in Johannesburg.
The tropical storm was expected to gain in strength on its way to Mozambique from Madagascar, where it caused heavy rains but little damage, and then continue moving in the direction of Zimbabwe and Botswana, an official said.
Storm warnings were issued in the concerned countries, and authorities in Mozambique began evacuating people from threatened areas.
The aid organisation, World Vision, estimated that more than 5.1 million people could be affected by flooding caused by Chalane.
This would have an impact on the food supply, which was already strained by the coronavirus pandemic, and also the education system.
Emergency teams stand ready in Mozambique, including from the German Red Cross, following the experience of the devastating cyclone Idai in 2019, which affected three million people and killed 600 in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
