A powerful cyclone has “entirely wiped out” villages in Mozambique, according to a UN official.
Gemma Connell, the head of the regional Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said it looked from the air like areas had been “run over by a bulldozer”.
Cyclone Kenneth struck on Thursday with winds of 220km/h (140mph).
It came barely a month after Cyclone Idai killed more than 900 people across three countries.
In a video posted on Twitter after flying over the affected area, Ms Connell pledged to work with local authorities “to get people the supplies they need”.
“The weather is still bad, it is still raining,” she said. “But thankfully the winds have died down.”
The BBC’s Pumza Fihlani reports that damage to power lines in parts of northern Mozambique is making communication difficult.
Almost 20,000 people have taken shelter in makeshift displacement centres, including schools and churches, our correspondent adds.
A UN spokesman said a total of five people have now died, quoting Mozambique’s government, according to reports.
One person was earlier reported to have been killed when Cyclone Kenneth struck after being crushed by a falling tree. The storm also killed three people on the island nation of Comoros.
UN weather experts say it is unprecedented for two cyclones of such intensity to hit Mozambique in the same season.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) also said that no previous records show a cyclone striking the region as far north as Kenneth.
It said a fact-finding mission would examine the “impact of climate change and sea-level rise on Mozambique’s resilience” to extreme weather.
