Killer floods sweep through Moz
2007-02-07 22:20
Maputo - Floods in Mozambique have killed 29 people and wrecked thousands of homes after torrential rains and hurricanes swept through the country in the past two weeks, said the government on Wednesday.
It said it had warned thousands of people living by the country's main rivers, including the lower banks of the Zambezi which runs from southern Angola across southern Africa to the Indian Ocean, to evacuate.
"Strong winds, flooding and rains... have caused 29 deaths, total destruction and partial destruction of 4 677 houses, 111 classrooms, four health posts serving 46 500," the Mozambique government said in a statement printed by Maputo daily newspaper Noticias.
The floods hit both northern and southern regions after rain and heavy winds battered the country for the past two weeks.
"We are facing a situation that is likely to reach alarming proportions," the statement said, adding regions near the country's main rivers were at particular risk.
Noticias said thousands of people living in high-risk areas had defied government orders by not evacuating the area.
Authorities from Mozambique, Angola and Zambia last month warned of a humanitarian crisis after deadly floods submerged towns, devastated crops and left thousands of villagers without shelter, food or water.
More than 700 people died in Mozambique in 2000 and 2001 when heavy flooding swept through the central and southern regions of the former Portuguese colony.