Lightning kills mother and two children in central Mozambique

A woman and two minor children died this Wednesday in Gorongosa, central Mozambique, after lightning struck the house where they were sleeping, confirmed the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGD) in the province of Sofala.

According to INGD delegate in Sofala Arestides Armando, the incident occurred at dawn in Kanda administrative post, Gorongosa district, after an atmospheric release destroyed a house, causing the death of a mother and children aged two and four. old.

“The family died at the scene, we also have a wounded son-in-law, who has now been rescued and is already in the hospital receiving treatment,” he added.

The INGD representative added that preliminary information is being collected in the region, acknowledging that more cases of this kind have been recorded.

“The province is calm. There have been some light rains at some places, but we have no other records so far and that is in the last 24 hours,” he said.

Between October and April, Mozambique experiences cyclical flooding, a phenomenon justified by its geographical location, which is prone to the passage of storms and at the same time located downstream of most of South Africa’s river basins.

Mozambique is considered one of the countries worst hit by climate change in the world, experiencing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs from October to April.

The 2018/2019 rainy season was one of the harshest in Mozambique’s history, with 714 people killed, including 648 victims of Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, two of the largest to ever hit the country.

According to official government data, in the first quarter of this year, heavy rains and the passage of Cyclone Freddy caused the death of 306 people, affected more than 1.3 million people in the country, and destroyed 236 thousand houses and 3,200 classrooms.