The Mozambican province of Nampula, in the north of the country, has managed to rehabilitate 491 of the nearly 4,000 classrooms that were destroyed by three tropical cyclones between December and March. The figure was given to the Lusa news agency on Monday by Faruk Carimo, spokesman for the Provincial Directorate of Education, who highlighted the coordinated effort between the Government, international partners and local communities to achieve this result.
Cyclones Jude, Chido and Dikeledi destroyed a total of 3,939 classrooms. The most destructive was Cyclone Jude, responsible for 2,552 of those losses, followed by Chido, with 708 classrooms affected, and Dikeledi, which left 679 classrooms unusable. The rehabilitation works covered 16 districts, including Angoche, Ilha de Moçambique, Malema, Moma and Nacala-Porto.
The recovery is still far from complete. The province is now awaiting the opening of a tender by the World Bank for the rehabilitation of a further 24 classrooms, while it continues to mobilise funds from development partners. According to Carimo, the response to climate change also involves training: “In 13 districts, focal points for risk management and climate change have already been trained, with World Bank support.”
Mozambique's vulnerability to extreme weather events is a constant concern. According to the report “State of the Climate in Mozambique 2024”, from the National Institute of Meteorology, the number and intensity of cyclones have been increasing over the past decade. Chido, which opened the 2024/2025 rainy season, was also the deadliest, contributing to a total of around 200 deaths that season.
The contingency plan for the current rainy season, which runs until April, anticipates that 1.2 million people could be affected by heavy rains, floods and new cyclones. To meet the risks, the Government estimates that it needs 14 billion meticais (about 190 million euros), of which less than half had been secured by October.
Last week, the Executive also announced the construction of 3,514 new classrooms and 11,457 houses in the areas hit by Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which caused 648 deaths in 2019. A total of 600 agreements, worth 6.4 million euros, were also signed to help rebuild the local business fabric.
The record of the 2018/2019 rainy season, one of the most severe on record, continues to haunt the country: in all, 714 deaths, of which 648 were directly caused by Cyclones Idai and Kenneth. The frequent and devastating impact of these phenomena confirms Mozambique as one of the countries most exposed to the effects of climate change worldwide.
