Tropical storm Cheneso has left thousands of people Mozambique’s northern Nampula province without electricity after gusty winds knocked down power infrastructure in the region on Wednesday, according to state-run power utility EDM.EDM said in a statement on Thursday that the cyclonic winds knocked down 11 electricity pylons in Nacala-a-Velha and Memba districts. 

The damage to infrastructure affected more than 31,270 households and businesses in the two areas.

The power utility said it was working to restore normal supply of electricity in the affected districts.

Tropical storm Cheneso, which has been building up in the Mozambique Channel over the past few days, has packed average wind speed of about 140 kilometres an hour and is expected to strengthen as it drifts towards Mozambique at the weekend.

Currently classified as a severe tropical storm,  Cheneso is expected to become a tropical cyclone by the weekend, according to weather experts.

Forecasts indicate that the system would strengthen into a tropical cyclone as it tracks southwestward in the Mozambique Channel from Thursday to Saturday. 

Experts have warned that, although there is uncertainty about the exact track and intensity of the storm, the system could hit the southeast coast of Mozambique.

The effects of the system would be felt along the coastal districts of Nampula and Zambézia provinces, which weather experts have warned would experience strong winds of up to 150 kilometres per hour over the next few days.

Mozambique is prone to tropical cyclones this time of the year, with the worst ever such extreme weather event being Cyclone Idai that claimed thousands of people and left a trail of destruction in the country, Malawi and Zimbabwe in March 2019.