Mindelo, Cabo Verde, Aug. 14, 2025 (Lusa) - In the heart of Praça Estrela, on the Cabo Verde's island of São Vicente, Manuel Ramos smiles genuinely as he shows off his mobile phone cable - his first sale since the storm that killed nine people.
"Today I sold a mobile phone cable for 500 escudos (€4.53). I thank God, I'm very happy because I've already ensured a kilo of rice," said 56-year-old Manuel Ramos, the owner of a small electronics stall, who estimates he has lost around 80% of his merchandise.
Manuel is one of 145 vendors at the market, where you can find everything - clothes, electronic equipment, shoes - and where, three days after the flood, people are still fighting mud and rubbish, and the smell is nauseating.
The shopkeeper estimates the damage at around one million escudos (around €9,000). "What was saved was because it was hanging from the ceiling. The water reached a height of one metre and 30 [centimetres]. I've been cleaning up since Monday afternoon, but while we're pulling things out of the mud, others are stealing them in the street," he laments.
He points to a corner and frowns: "Next door there are two dead dogs; the smell is unbearable. If this isn't cleaned up quickly, in less than a week, we'll have diseases," he warns.
Despite the scenario, Manuel insists on seeing a positive side: the sale of a simple cable, on a day when, in normal times, he would make between 10,000 and 20,000 escudos (between €90 and €181).
A few metres away, 49-year-old food merchant Victor Mendes is trying to salvage what he can after the water rose almost two metres inside his shop.
"I've lost everything. I'm not even aware of all the losses, but half of the shop's contents were underwater. I'm taking the wet products to see what I can use. Water, juices, maybe we can still sell them," he says.
The loss, he estimates, will be around 600,000 escudos ( €5,000). Since six in the morning, he has made four trips to an improvised warehouse. "The clean-up is difficult, there's mud everywhere, and the streets are still too wet for cars to pass. But the most important thing is that my life is safe. I'm going to keep working and moving forward," he said.
Further on, sitting on a bucket, Artemisa Andrade, 44, tries to sell the vegetables she managed to buy in another area. The market where she worked was razed to the ground. "I'm here improvised. I have nowhere to go. There's no money, no goods, nothing is coming. The rain is good, but it's better not to come like this," she says.
The city is slowly trying to get back on its feet. Markets have partially reopened, some taxis and buses are running, banks have queues again, and some people are rushing to work. But in many homes, there is still no electricity or water.
On the streets, Civil Protection brigades and volunteers are working with shovels, brooms, lorries and machines to clear roads and remove rubble. Town hall officials are also working in the area.
Sheila Delgado, 39, who has been cleaning streets for five years, said she has never seen anything like it: "We started yesterday. The square is just the beginning.
Her colleague, Leinira Lima, 38, added that "The floods have swept away plastic, glasses, rubbish of all kinds. The men use machines; we use brooms and shovels. It's hard, but little by little it will get back to normal."
Cabo Verde's government decreed two days of national mourning. It declared a state of calamity for six months in São Vicente, Porto Novo (Santo Antão) and the two municipalities on the island of São Nicolau.
Houses, roads and bridges were destroyed, and entire neighbourhoods were flooded.
The municipality of São Vicente has started handing out grants to the families of the dead and is preparing support for the homeless. One woman was rescued alive, and one person has yet to be located.
Countries such as Timor-Leste, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal and Sao Tome and Principe have already shown solidarity. A navy ship is arriving from Portugal this Friday to provide humanitarian assistance.
RS/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
