President Filipe Nyusi was forced to cut short his participation at the just-ended 36th African Union Summit in Ethiopia to guide his government’s emergency response programme as Tropical Cyclone Freddy tracks its way towards Mozambique.
Nyusi said in a statement late Sunday that he had to make an early return home from the AU summit in order to monitor his country’s response to the looming tropical cyclone.
He was confident that his government would be able to put in place adequate measures to respond to the anticipated heavy rains and flooding.
“As we have done things, the world considers that we have done well. As a government, as opposition parties, as Mozambicans, including civilians, we have a product that we are proud of and saleable,” he said.
Weather experts have warned that the cyclone is expected to pack winds of up to 250km/hour and could leave a trail of destruction on the eastern coast of Africa from Tanzania and Madagascar to Mozambique and further inland in Zimbabwe.
It is expected to affect as many as two million people in several countries.
The cyclone is expected to make landfall in Mozambique in the early hours of Friday.
JN/APA