A mum who saw her daughter swept away in the floods of Cyclone Idai later found her trapped in a tree – miraculously still alive.
Lispa Mugwagwa told how she had to make the agonising choice between saving her eldest daughter or her three younger children as a mudslide threatened their home.
As a torrent swept through their village of Chimanimani in Zimbabwe, Lispa put her baby on her back and grabbed her middle two by the hand.
But eldest daughter Levette was stranded, and devastated Lispa heard her cry out for her five times before the flood waters took her.
Cyclone Idai: Hundreds dead and dozens of children missing after devastating storm
Lispa said: “She wanted my help. I had to make a quick decision, whether to go help her and risk losing the other three, or look after them and let her go. It wasn’t an easy decision.”
After she and the younger three were taken to higher ground they went to look for Levette, and saw her in a tree, badly injured but alive. Nearly 200 people have died in Zimbabwe and many more are still missing following the devastation of Cyclone Idai.
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In neighbouring Mozambique hundreds of thousands have been made homeless.
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