Idai leaves overwhelming need for assistance

As floodwaters recede in cyclone-ravaged areas of southern Africa, the focus of relief efforts shifts to searches for family members and much-needed assistance for 2 million people affected by the disaster.

Aid workers in Mozambique are scrambling to address public health concerns in makeshift camps that already house 228,000 displaced people, with more on the way.

“We will have cholera; we will have malaria,” said Celso Correia, the government’s emergency response coordinator. “It’s unavoidable in this situation, so the government is opening a cholera treatment center already.”

Cyclone Idai struck Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi on March 14, killing more than 700 people. Thousands of others are missing, and the number of casualties is expected to rise as authorities continue to gain access to more regions.

“There are bodies floating in the water,” Heidi Baker, a missionary leading the U.S.-based Iris Global ministry in Mozambique, said in a video update. “We are working together as a united front to do something right now in the midst of insane human suffering.”

The hard-hit port city of Beira has become the command center for aid efforts in Mozambique. Thousands of people from other affected areas have walked for hours or come by boat to get assistance, and others have set out from Beira to search for family members as outages continue to plague communication networks.

One woman, Veronica Fatia, said she traveled three hours by boat to the town of Buzi in search of her mother. “My home is gone, but I’m also happy because I can see my family,” she said.

Jamie LeSueur, who leads the Mozambique operations of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the group is working on providing sanitation facilities for about 20,000 people and clean water for about 15,000 people in Beira this week.

World Relief in a statement said it has formed a partnership with the Evangelical Association of Malawi to assist about 9,000 households in the southern region with immediate relief. “Our hearts are broken for those who have lost homes and loved ones through the devastation of Cyclone Idai,” World Relief President Scott Arbeiter said.

Nicholas Shamano, the country director with Christian Aid in Zimbabwe, told me the group will provide immediate assistance to 1,000 households that will offer shelter, food, and basic hygiene needs.

On Sunday, Christians still gathered outdoors to pray. Worshippers at the Universal Church in Beira prayed and sang on the patio of a damaged building. “You can see the strength in their eyes,” the 36-year-old pastor, known as Junior, told Reuters. “From today, we are looking forward.”

Migrants rest in a detention center in Tripoli, Libya, in September 2018. Associated Press/Photo by Mohame Ben Khalifa

Detention crisis in Libya

Refugees inside derelict detention facilities in the Libyan city of Sabaa face acute malnutrition, a medical aid group said last week. Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF), said 75 of about 300 detainees are malnourished or underweight. The group said the detainees receive only one meal every two to three days, and new arrivals can wait up to four days before they get food. An MSF medical team also found 31 people locked up in a cramped room measuring 15 by 16 feet.

Libya descended into crisis in 2011 after NATO-backed rebels overthrew and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi. The country’s political vacuum and insecurity has allowed human traffickers who exploit migrants to thrive.

European nations responded by working with Libyan border patrol officials to tighten their borders, but that leaves thousands of migrants stranded in the North African country. “If food, shelter, and essential services can’t be provided in a consistent and appropriate manner, then these people should be released immediately,” said Karline Kleijer, MSF’s head of emergencies. —O.O.

Migrants rest in a detention center in Tripoli, Libya, in September 2018. Associated Press/Photo by Mohame Ben Khalifa

Kenyan teacher receives global award

A Kenyan teacher who donates 80 percent of his salary to help underprivileged students in his village received the $1 million Global Teacher Prize from the Varkey Foundation on Sunday.

Peter Tabichi, a Catholic Franciscan friar, teaches math and physics to high schoolers at a government-run school in the village of Pwani, located in Kenya’s Rift Valley. Almost a third of his students are orphans or only have a single parent in a community that frequently battles drought and famine. The Keriko secondary school has one computer with a student-teacher ratio of 58-to-1.

Tabichi works with his colleagues to provide personal tutoring and science clubs for the students. His pupils have won awards at national and international competitions, including at The Royal Society of Chemistry in the United Kingdom. He plans to use the prize money to improve the school and feed the poor.

“I am only here because of what my students have achieved,” he said. “This prize gives them a chance. It tells the world that they can do anything.” —O.O.

Migrants rest in a detention center in Tripoli, Libya, in September 2018. Associated Press/Photo by Mohame Ben Khalifa

Kazakhstan’s three-decade ruler steps down

Longtime Kazakhstani leader Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned last week in a surprise move after three decades in power. The 78-year-old had ruled the country since 1989 as a Communist leader and then became its first president in 1991, when the country gained independence from the Soviet Union.

“As the founder of the independent Kazakh state, I see my task now in facilitating the rise of a new generation of leaders who will continue the reforms that are under way in the country,” Nazarbayev said.

Senate Chairman Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev will serve as interim leader until elections in April 2020. But Nazarbayev retains significant control. He still leads the ruling party and is in charge of the Security Council, which decides foreign and security policies. —O.O.

Russia deports Mormon missionaries

Two American Mormons safely returned to the United States last week after Russian officials deported them. Authorities accused and convicted Kole Brodowski, 20, and David Gaag, 19, of “carrying out missionary work by a foreign citizen in violation of the requirements of the legislation on freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, and religious associations,” NBC News reported. The young men were completing two years of mission work, a rite of passage in the Mormon religion.

A Morman spokesman told NBC that Brodowski had nearly finished his mission and will return to California, and Gaag will go home to Washington state for a brief period before going to a new mission area.

Russia declared Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism the four “traditional” faiths in 1997. In 2016, it passed anti-terrorism laws that made missionary activities such as those carried out by Mormons illegal. The Mormon religion has 23,000 followers in Russia, according to Radio Free Europe. —Julia A. Seymour