Top 10 deadliest natural disasters that shook Africa over time

Natural disasters for the first time in recorded history, Mozambique has been hit by two cyclones in a single season. Natural disasters like Cyclone Kenneth battered the country last week, claiming the lives of about 41 people and bringing in its wake a cholera outbreak.

Earlier, the tropical cyclone Idai barreled across southern African nations with flash floods and ferocious winds after making landfall near the Mozambique port city of Beira on March 14. Over 600 people were killed in the process while thousands of cases of cholera and malaria have been recorded.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and the United Nations says that over 1.85 million people, mostly women and children, are urgently in need of assistance, as aid agencies are struggling to help those affected by both storms.

Over the years, natural disasters like floods, landslides, earthquakes, and hurricanes have destroyed homes, flattened towns and claimed countless lives on the continent. Being natural disasters, they hit unexpectedly, though experts say that climate change may have played a role in most of them.

Such disasters can rapidly turn deadly, draining domestic and international relief efforts while others are still etched in the memory of the affected due to their devastating impacts.

Below are 10 of the deadliest natural disasters in African history: