A powerful cyclone that threatened the western Indian state of Gujarat, has changed course and it is now expected to just brush past the coast, authorities said on Thursday, although ports and coastal airports remained shut.

The UN has described Cyclone Idai as one of the deadliest storms on record in the Southern Hemisphere. More than 1,000 have died, and millions are still fighting for survival. DW spoke with aid worker Ninja Taprogge.

Mozambique said on Wednesday five cases of cholera had been confirmed around the badly damaged port city of Beira after a powerful cyclone killed more than 700 people across a swathe of southern Africa.

A storm ravaging southern Africa is possibly the worst weather-related disaster ever to hit the southern hemisphere, with 1.7 million people in the path of the cyclone in Mozambique and 920,000 affected in Malawi, U.N. officials said on Tuesday.