Beira
[key], city, capital of Sofala province, E central Mozambique, a seaport
on the Mozambique Channel (an arm of the Indian Ocean), at the mouths of the
Púngoè and Búzi rivers. A commercial center, the city
grew (beginning in 1891) as the terminus of a railroad into the interior.
Beira has handled the foreign trade of Congo (Kinshasa), Zimbabwe, Zambia,
and Malawi as well as of Mozambique, but rail service was interrupted by
bombings during the war for Zimbabwean independence in the late 1970s and
was ultimately halted as a result of the Mozambique civil war. Rail service
has since been restored to parts of Mozambique and to Zimbabwe and
connections
beyond.
In 2019 a tropical cyclone devastated the city.
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