Ibo island after Cyclone Kenneth: Vacation hot spot in shambles

The island of Ibo in Mozambique's north is home to a few thousand people. Almost all the houses on the island were destroyed or severely damaged by the cyclone. Njamu Shabani's plot of land was razed to the ground. Her whole neighborhood looks like a bulldozer ran over it.

"I've lost everything," Njamu Shabani told DW as she laid out a few sheets in the rubble to dry. "My fridge, TV, everything." She and her family don't know what's coming next. "I don't even have anything to eat. I don't know how to go on from here," she said.

Shabani and her family now live in this makeshift hut. She said she hopes the government will provide compensation soon. President Filipe Nyusi visited Ibo last Wednesday, but aid has been slow to arrive on the island.

Aid deliveries are only slowly trickling in at Ibo's small airport. The delivery of food supplies only started Thursday due to bad weather. It has been raining every day since the cyclone hit which often made it impossible for relief flights to take off from Mozambique's mainland that's only some 8 kilometers (5 miles) away from the island.

Cyclone Kenneth and the heavy rains that followed have destroyed the island's fields. Some are still flooded. Ibo is in luck, though — the water is receding on the island while Mozambique's mainland is still at risk of even more flooding.

Since the cyclone hit, the island's 6,000 inhabitants have to fend off hunger. Many here rely on fishing, but the cyclone has hurled away many of their fishing boats. Mangroves have also been destroyed and fish driven away, Ibo's fishermen said.

"The storm pushed my boat far out to sea," said fisher Yusuf Abedi. "I just found it two days ago with the help of my friends and brought it back here." He said he's trying to repair it now. "I hope it works out so I can go fishing again."

Hotel Miti Miwiri is right next to the beach. Once a prime holiday destination, the hotel is now dealing with toppled mango trees on its land. A palm tree collapsed right onto the hotel's roof. "Tourism is going to be out for the next months," owner Jörg Salzer told DW.

Salzer has been living on the island for more than 10 years. "I myself am still in a bit of shock. My own home has collapsed as well. I hardly have anything to wear," the hotel owner said, adding he was trying his best to convey to his staff that life goes on. Salzer and his team managed to watch the Champions League semifinal on Wednesday — a bit of normalcy in the aftermath of the cyclone.