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Gift of Givers ready to aid Mozambique amid massive cyclone

Disaster relief organisation Gift of the Givers, says it is on high alert and ready to assist in Mozambique, where Tropical Cyclone Idai is expected to make landfall.

"But more importantly, only if a call is made by the Mozambican Government for urgent assistance," the organisation's founder, Imtiaz Sooliman, said.

Earlier on Thursday, News24 reported that a major cyclone was expected to make landfall in Mozambique in the evening, bringing with it high wind speeds and rain.


The storm was expected to deliver a massive punch to the country. Pre-storm flooding in the country has already killed 66 people.

READ: Cyclone set to hit Mozambique hard tonight, dozens already killed

Sooliman said its intervention would include 70 personnel, among them aquatic rescue officials, rescue technicians, rescue divers, advanced life support paramedics and doctors. 

Twenty-two vehicles (4×4), 10 power boats, 4 jet skis, 14 inflatable, non-motorised 2-man rescue boats, a range of rescue equipment and access to an 8-seater plane were also part of the organisation's intervention plan. 

"This is Gift of the Givers largest water rescue preparation in its 26-year history. We have assisted Mozambique in 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2013," Sooliman added.

He said the organisation had already engaged the Mozambican government and the head of Disaster Management and were ready to respond if they were needed.

News24 reported that an additional 45 people had died in Malawi as a result of flooding on Wednesday.

Tropical Cyclone Idai is gathering strength over the Indian Ocean and is predicted to hit the country in the city of Beira in Sofala Province.

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