The United Nations World Food Programme raised the crisis classification for Mozambique’s flooding after it was struck by Tropical Cyclone Idai to its highest level, which it said put the disaster on par with Syria and Yemen. “The designation will accelerate the massive operational scale-up now underway to assist victims,” the WFP said in an online statement. Satellite imagery shows numerous floodplains, including an “inland ocean” that is the size of Luxembourg, the WFP said. While almost 90,000 people have been saved, according to the National Institute of Disaster Management, at least 600,000 people have been displaced, the WFP said. “The situation will get worse before it gets better,” Henrietta Fore, an executive director of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, said in an emailed statement on Saturday.

Source: National Post March 23, 2019 17:26 UTC