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Mozambique revises Cyclone Chido death toll up to 94

Over 600,000 people were impacted by the cyclone's destructive path in Mozambique. (Reuters: Shafiek Tassiem)

In short:

Mozambique has revised up its death toll to 94 as the clean up from Tropical Cyclone Chido continues.

In the French island territory of Mayotte, which was also ravaged by the cyclone, authorities are still bracing for a high death toll.

The cyclone reached category four strength as it left a trail of destruction in the west Indian Ocean last week.

Mozambique authorities have revised up the country's death toll from Tropical Cyclone Chido, a week after the storm tore a path of destruction through the west Indian Ocean.

The country's disaster management agency raised its official death toll from 76 to 94 on Sunday.

The cyclone, which devastated the French island territory of Mayotte before hitting the African mainland, also destroyed 110,000 homes in Mozambique, officials said.

After making landfall the storm ravaged the northern province of Cabo Delgado with gusts of around 260 kilometres an hour, pelting it with 250 millimetres of rain in a day.

Mozambique revises Cyclone Chido death toll up to 94

Authorities say shanty homes in the French territory of Mayotte were flattened by the category four storm. (Reuters: Yves Herman)

Most of the 500,000 of the 620,000 Mozambicans affected by the storm — which experts say was made more intense by human-driven climate change — are concentrated in Cabo Delgado.

The storm hit as the southern African nation reels from a deadly post-election crisis pitting the country's party against an opposition crying foul over alleged electoral fraud.

At least 130 people have been killed in protests against president Daniel Chapo's victory in an election that international observers say was marred by irregularities, according to Plataforma Decide.

Mozambique revises Cyclone Chido death toll up to 94

Authorities fear the death toll in Mayotte will increase into the thousands. (Reuters: Gonzalo Fuentes)

Death toll in French territory still unknown

For the time being, Mozambique remains the country with the heaviest death toll from Cyclone Chido.

Seven days after the cyclone hit the French territory of Mayotte, the country's interior ministry was still reporting 35 deaths and 2,500 injuries on the archipelago.

BOM warns of possibly intensifying tropical cyclones

Photo shows An SES worker removing debris from the cyclone.

Mozambique revises Cyclone Chido death toll up to 94

The Bureau of Meterology is expected an average season for tropical cyclone's for WA's North West, but that still means five cyclone are expected.

But it is feared the toll may rise sharply given the scores of undocumented migrants from the nearby Comoros islands, who tend to inhabit Mayotte's many shantytowns flattened by the storm.

In the aftermath of the disaster, French president Emmanuel Macron caused controversy with his response to hecklers during a visit to Mayotte to survey the damage.

"If this was not [part of] France, you would be 10,000 times deeper in the sh*t," he told hecklers.

The comments drew condemnation from left-wing French politicians.

The Comoros — which also claims sovereignty over Mayotte — declared a day of national mourning over Cyclone Chido's passage, despite having not recorded any deaths on its territory.

After sweeping over Mozambique, the cyclone moved into Malawi.

Despite losing intensity, it killed 13 people and injured nearly 30 there, according to the Malawian disaster management agency.

AFP

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