Woman Gives Birth While On Mango Tree In Mozambique

A Mozambique woman has reportedly given birth on a Mango tree during a devastating flood at the central Mozambique.

Pregnant single mother Amelia was with her two-year-old son when flood water suddenly entered their home during the storms caused by Cyclone Idai, which killed more than 900 people.

They climbed a nearby mango tree, where she gave birth to her daughter, named Sara, while holding onto the trees branches.

After Sara was born, the family were rescued two days later and were taken to a nearby shelter in southern Mozambique.

“Without warning, the water began to enter the house, and I had no choice but to climb a tree,” Amelia told Unicef.

“On top of that tree I gave birth to my daughter Sara and stayed in that tree for two days.”

The family is now staying makeshift accommodation in Dombe.

The storms during Cyclone Idai wreaked havoc after battering the Mozambican port city of Beria last month, before moving inland towards Zimbabwe and Milawe.

Homes were flattened during the storm, with roads and bridges also damaged. Heavy rains also washed away agricultural lands, leaving many with nothing to harvest.

Cholera cases in Mozambique after the cyclone has now risen above 1,400, government officials said this week as hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses arrived in the country.

Authorities also on Monday announced a second death from cholera, which causes acute diarrhoea and is spread by contaminated food and water – conditions that 128,000 displaced cyclone survivors now risk daily while in temporary shelters.

The outbreak has grown swiftly since it was declared last week with five confirmed cases.

Now there are 1,428, most of them in the hard-hit port city of Beira, which has been the hub of relief efforts since Cyclone Idai roared in on March 14.

Authorities on Tuesday said the overall death toll in Mozambique from the cyclone has risen to 598. Cyclone Idai also killed at least 259 people in neighbouring Zimbabwe and at least 56 in Malawi.