The National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC) has announced the death of at least 53 persons after tropical Cyclone Gombe hit Mozambique last week.

The institute announced another 80 people were injured and 400,000 affected since the cyclone swept into northern and central areas of the country, flooding towns and destroying houses.

Additional data also showed Gombe had destroyed 45,000 homes and partially destroyed 30,000.

This is not the first highly destructive cyclone in Mozambique in the past few years. Back in January 2021, tropical Cyclone Eloise hit Mozambique’s Sofala coastal province before weakening and heading inland to dump rain on Zimbabwe, Eswatini and South Africa.

Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD) said investigations had shown Eloise had injured 12 people and displaced 6,859.

136,755 hectares (33,7928 acres) of crops were destroyed, as well as nine schools and 11 hospitals, INGD said in a statement. 1,069 houses were destroyed, 3,343 partially destroyed and flooded another 1,500, the agency added.

In the past few years, Southern Africa has suffered repeated devastating cyclones of the type that used to be relatively rare, and scientists believe climate change is fuelling their intensity via the warming of the Indian Ocean.