After underwriting the financial support the government of Mozambique needed to train operational staff on the drone and related technology needed to cushion the damage caused by cyclones and other disasters in the country, you can forgive the African Development Bank for blowing its own trumpet on the scale of what it has achieved in the past year.
Picture this: going back to the year 2000, Mozambique has stood as Southern Africa’s vanguard against cyclones that have battered the region in the past 25 years, and the scale of destruction and loss of human lives has been traumatic to compute.
In February 2000, the aftermath of Cyclone Eline were devastating floods that were the worst to hit Mozambique in 50 years. More than 700 people died, 650,000 more were displaced and 4.5 million — a quarter of the whole country’s population — were affected.
Anybody remember that haunting viral image of Carolina Cecilia Chirindza, the mother who gave birth to her daughter Rosita Salvador Mabuiango while grappling for dear life on a tree branch as the waters of an overflowing Limpopo River raged on the ground below?
Rosita – who became the national symbol of resilience, travelling to Washington in the US later in 2000 to speak to Congress to help raise awareness about the scale of disaster that had visited Mozambique that year – tragically died in January this year, just a month short of her 26th birthday.
Drone technology was not yet in the Mozambican disaster relief lexicon either when Cyclone Idai landed in March 2019, killing more than 1,300 people and destroying over $773million worth in buildings, roads and crops.
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Mozambican government. They knew they had to act, and to act in rea time too, when the next cyclone came; because they simply could not afford to keep losing their citizens in this manner.
So, the possible solution arose: what if rescue teams could see what was happening — in real time, from the air, with precision?
“In February 2026, floods hit southern Mozambique again, destroying 30 000 homes and affecting up to 800 000 people,” the AfDB wrote in a recent article.
“But the response was different this time – when government called for emergency intervention, a team of trained Mozambican drone pilots was ready.”
The training comprised local youth, who were trained using drone technology to respond to disasters, under the Drone-Based Disaster Management Solution project, supported by the African Development Bank and financed through the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Trust Fund – which first came to life in April last year.
The project aims to enhance the country’s preparedness and response to disasters by strategically deploying drone technology.
The training was delivered in the capital, Maputo, in partnership with the national Ministry of Communication and Digital Transformation, with Busan Technopark of the Republic of Korea coming on board as the drone partner.
PNU Drone, a faculty-founded enterprise in the Aerospace Engineering Department at Korea’s Pusan National University, delivered the training.
February this year was the first time the trainees put their new skills to test, and within hours, drones were airborne — mapping the disaster, monitoring water levels, feeding real time intelligence to national authorities. The technology the country had lacked for 25 years was finally, operationally, in Mozambican hands.
“In 2023, the Mozambican government requested support from the African Development Bank Group support in drone-based flood management,” the bank says.
“The bank secured $967,000 from the Republic of Korea’s KOAFEC Trust Fund. In April 2025, the Bank, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Transformation of Mozambique (MCTD) and Busan Technopark (BTP) signed a tripartite agreement in Maputo.
“Korea brought two decades of drone expertise from Pusan National University. Mozambique brought sovereign ownership and institutional commitment. The African Development Bank brought fiduciary rigour and the convening authority to hold the partnership together.”
In the AfDB’s explanation, the project was built on three integrated components: equipment, trained pilots and deployment in disaster zones — because equipment without people is hardware and training without deployment is theory.
“The drone fleet is a purpose-built aerial intelligence system: two fixed-wing drones for search and rescue (SAR) and aerial mapping, unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) that measure river depth and water quality and a portable ground control station integrating all data in real time.
“Together they deliver five capabilities that close the information gap: aerial mapping of flood extent with centimetre precision; real-time flood monitoring feeding GIS simulations; damage assessment guiding food aid and shelter allocation; SAR — locating survivors in floodwaters in full darkness and transmitting their exact coordinates to rescue teams; and water quality monitoring via surface vehicles, enabling early warning of disease outbreaks before they begin.
“When the February 2026 emergency struck, all five were operational. The drones found the people. The data guided the response.”
And the bank reckons that the most important outcome of this project is not even the drone fleet acquired to help in disaster mitigation.
“It is the 30 certified Mozambican drone pilots and 10 certified instructors who form the backbone of a permanent national disaster management capability.”
The training ran from October last year until April 2026, across four cohorts, who were trained in theory, simulation, practical flight and maintenance. Ten participants completed an advanced instructor module — qualifying them to train future cohorts independently.
“Each instructor can certify ten new pilots per group. Within three years, Mozambique can grow its drone workforce from 30 to 300, using national personnel and national infrastructure, at a fraction of the original cost.”
On 10 July this year, Prime Minister Maria Benvinda Levi presided over a National Drone Pilot graduation ceremony in Maputo — a signal confirming this capability is a national strategic priority.
“The African Development Bank invested in this project because its mandate — anchored in President Dr Sidi Ould Tah’s Four Cardinal Points — is to build climate resilient infrastructure, unlock capital and harness Africa’s demographic transformation.
“This project does all three: it protects physical infrastructure, multiplies a $967 000 investment into decades of impact and places cutting edge technology in the hands of young Mozambican professionals. The model is replicable.”
A concept note for a Centre of Excellence for Drone Technologies has been submitted to Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC, which was the custodian of the drone training project), to position Mozambique as Africa’s continental reference for drone innovation and a regional training hub.
“The drones are still flying,” says the AfDB.
“The instructors are training the next cohort. The data is feeding early warning systems protecting communities long unprotected.
“That is what development means. That is what the African Development Bank, Korea and Mozambique built — together.”
Of course, the people of Mozambique would rather there was never another flood coming their way from the Indian Ocean ever again.
But for now, the government can afford to sleep a bit, in the knowledge that - in the case of another cyclone hitting its shores again - this time at least, it has made the necessary preparations to get people to safety in time.