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Source: Inexplicable puzzle of Cyclone Idai | Newsday (News)

BY Everson Mushava/ Tapiwa Zivira

A WRECKAGE of a Trip Trans bus – now a shell precariously perched on top of huge boulders, and pieces of broken trees and other debris – litters Nyapani River bed near Skyline in Chimanimani.

The bus shell, which now lies in the river gorge about half a kilometre from the road, presents a chilling revelation of the might of Cyclone Idai, whose ferocious storm waters swept the bus into the river, killing three people.

The bus, which has remained largely in one piece, except for a missing engine, which was ripped off as the bus was being swept down the gorge, symbolises the inexplicable puzzle of the nature of the cyclone that has so far claimed over 300 and left hundreds others missing after it hit Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi.

Around the wreckage lies an assortment of items ranging from ladies’ shoes to wigs, blankets and clothes.

Despite the steep terrain to the river bed where the wreckage lies, the place has become a tourist attraction to hundreds trekking to Chimanimani to try and understand the level of devastation of the floods.

Cherukai Mukamba (47) recounted the horror night when the bus was swept away, killing three people, including the conductor whose bodies were recovered at Nyanyadzi Bridge, over 100km from the accident scene.

“On March 14, it rained and for over 12 hours it poured down non-stop. At around 9pm, a tree fell on the road and the bus could not pass,” he said.

“The driver offered us $20 for us to cut off the tree so that the bus could pass. I rushed home, took an axe and with three other villagers, started cutting the tree while the driver watched and ordering people to disembark from the bus.”

He added: “When we were cutting, a strong wind came, it threw us off balance and we felt the danger and left the place immediately. I went home and after 30 minutes, I heard sounds like stones hitting each other and then a loud bang and all went quiet.

“Early in the morning, we discovered this bus here, with all these stones. This was a field and all these stones were not here. We later heard from the bus driver that water started washing stones that hit the bus and forced it down into the river.”

A Christian, Mukamba said he was still traumatised by what he saw during the floods and believes it was God’s way of communicating his anger with the way the people have chosen to live sinful lives.

“I am not sure how many people died. There were two women who remained asleep in the bus and the conductor. Their bodies were recovered at Nyanyadzi. I don’t want to think about what happened. In short it was a nightmare.”

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The controversial black ownership law in Zimbabawe is dead. The requirement that black Zimbabweans own majority stakes in foreign owned business – that has hurt investment in the country for more than a decade -is [...]

Source: Stench leads to recovery of body | Newsday (News)

Some of the graves of Cyclone Idai victims at Ngangu growth point in Chimanimani

BY Everson Mushava/Tapiwa Zivira

The rising stench of decomposing Cyclone Idai victims buried under debris at Ngangu in Chimanimani is now helping the recovery of bodies with residents saying sniffer dogs will quicken the pace of recovery of their missing relatives.

NewsDay yesterday witnessed the body of a boy aged around 12 years being retrieved from debris of a house washed away by floods at Ngangu township’s new stands after being guided by the stench, two weeks after the cyclone wreaked havoc in the Eastern Highlands.

Residents failed to positively identify the body of the boy who was covered in blankets, suggesting that he was washed away while in his sleep.

According to a villager Tatenda Zhambe, some residents were looking for hardware equipment believed to be buried under the debris when they were suddenly chocked by the stench.
Soldiers involved in the rescue operation later came and retrieved the body.

“We are now being guided by the stench to recover our relatives. There are a lot of people buried under these huge rocks and mud,” Zhambe said.

“We call on government to bring sniffer dogs as quickly as possible. I lost two sisters and we don’t know where they are.”

Zhambe said sniffer dogs would help to get more bodies – estimated to be over 100 – dug up before they deteriorate further.

In what reads like a sad horror tale, residents near the most affected parts of Ngangu – where mud and boulders slid from the nearby mountains and destroyed dozens of houses – are now scouring the area, identifying where stench is emanating from before digging up.

Meanwhile, most parts of Chimanimani continued to receive aid, but some residents were complaining that undeserving beneficiaries were getting priority over victims.

At Border Timbers, some villagers broke a security gate to gain entry into the premises in the hope of getting food aid that was being dropped off by two South African helicopters.

The villagers claimed they had been locked out because their names did not appear on the list of beneficiaries.

Some relief agencies were also taking foodstuffs to affected areas following the repair of the Charter-Ngangu Road.

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Source: Cyclone disaster: Zim turns to SA sniffer dogs | Newsday (News)

BY XOLISANI NCUBE/VENERANDA LANGA/FARAI MATIASHE

The Zimbabwe government has approached its South African counterpart to assist with sniffer dogs to locate victims of Cyclone Idai still buried under mudslides as it emerged that local dogs were not trained to search for dead bodies.

Around 350 people are still missing amid fears that many of them were still buried under the mudslides after the cyclone ravaged Chimanimani and Chipinge sweeping away homes and uprooting huge rocks from the nearby mountains.

Briefing journalists and captains of industry in Harare yesterday, Local Government minister July Moyo said rescue operations were ongoing.

“We are now educated that sniffer dogs can sniff for gold, can sniff for mbanje or other drugs, but there are specially trained ones which can sniff for dead bodies and those ones we generally don’t have them in Zimbabwe. Therefore, we are getting assistance from our neighbour in South Africa,” Moyo said.

“We expect that the first team should be arriving anytime between now and 12pm midday (yesterday) and the other team, was still mobilising to send more people to come here.
They will have four teams to be deployed together with our police and army units who are already in the area. Because we believe a lot of people are buried there, these sniffer dogs have become more important.”

An entire growth point and nearby suburb with more than 80 houses at Dzingire, popularly known as Kopa in Chipinge, was swept away by tropical Cyclone Idai floods.

“We still have not accounted for all because we still have a large number that is missing,” Moyo said.

“We think we are still missing some who have not been reported as missing. We also suspect that those who are missing from families are buried under avalanches, the mudslides which came from the mountains. These include heavy stones that have replaced what used to be residential areas.”

Moyo said so far rescue operations had managed to open roads to reach the affected people, but more needed to be done because only selected vehicles could access the damaged roads.

He said most of the affected families had been attended to, stating that reports of politicisation of food aid were disturbing.

Although observing that some of the reports were sensationalised, he could not defend Zanu PF councillors who were named to be dishing out donated food aid on political grounds saying as far as he was concerned such acts were not permissible.

He, however, defended the Chimanimani West MP Nokuthula Matsikenyere, saying she was not involved in the alleged mischief.

The minister revealed that MDC officials such as Brain James (former Mutare mayor) were involved in the rescue mission and their activities were above board.

“Yes, you have seen reports that Zanu PF (is grabbing aid), that cannot be a thing that is allowed,” Moyo said.

He suggested that Zanu PF officials were trying to help transport the foodstuffs to affected communities as they had vehicles that could reach the areas, but was quick to say a directive had been given to government officials not to use political offices to distribute donations because this had the potential of affecting relief efforts.

Later, Moyo released a statement in Senate, revealing that the confirmed deaths still stood at 179, much lower than the 259 given by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) last week.

“The official death toll is 179 and those that are missing (are) now at 349 and this information is coming from civic leaders, non-governmental organisations, village heads, school heads and ordinary people,” Moyo said.

He said some of the trapped bodies at Kopa could be of banana traders.

“We are working with the Ministry of Higher Education and the National University of Science and Technology to help us with DNA tests to identify bodies exhumed from the rubble,” he said.

Moyo also reported that the World Food Programme has now brought in larger planes which can carry 26 tonnes to the 23 heavily affected areas.

Most of the food was being stored at World Vision warehouses in Mutare, the minister said.

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Source: New UNICEF Representative in Zimbabwe presents credentials | Newsday (News)

New UNICEF Representative in Zimbabwe, Ms. Laylee Moshiri (left) presents her credentials in Harare to Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Trade, Hon. Dr. Sibusiso Moyo.

UNICEF ZIMBABWE

Newly-appointed UNICEF Representative in Zimbabwe, Ms. Laylee Moshiri, on Tuesday, 26 March 2019 presented her credentials in Harare to Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Trade, Hon. Dr. Sibusiso Moyo.

Ms. Moshiri will oversee the current five-year UNICEF Programme of Cooperation with the Government of Zimbabwe, 2016-2020.

Welcoming Ms. Moshiri to Zimbabwe, the Minister said that he looked forward to continuing to work closely with UNICEF to reduce child mortality and address health issues facing Zimbabweans. Ms. Moshiri, expressed appreciation to the Minister for receiving her accreditation within hours of arrival in the country, as this would enable her to assume leadership immediately of UNICEF’s collaboration with Government and partners in response to the country’s flood emergency.

Ms. Moshiri’s career with UNICEF spans over 25 years. Prior to her new assignment, she was UNICEF Representative in Senegal (September 2014 – March 2019), Tadjikistan (September 2011 – August 2014), and Armenia (September 2008 – August 2011). She has also served as Emergency Coordinator in Algeria (2008), in Afghanistan as Chief of Field Office Central Zone, Kabul, and Chief of Field Operations and Emergency (2003-2007).

A national of Iran, Ms. Moshiri started her UNICEF career in 1993 as a National Officer in Tehran working in various capacities, including Chief of Cluster on Child Survival and Development, before taking up her first international post in 2003.

Before joining UNICEF, Ms. Moshiri worked at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois in Lausanne, Switzerland, as researcher and data management specialist (1987-1992) and as Hospital Epidemiologist at CIGNA Hospital, Los Angeles, California.

Ms. Moshiri holds a Master’s degree in Epidemiology (MPH) and a Bachelor’s degree in Behavioural Sciences and Health Education, both from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

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