4 South Africans still missing

2005-09-06 08:37

Pretoria - Four South Africans are still missing after Hurricane Katrina struck the United States city of New Orleans last week, the department of foreign affairs said on Monday.

"Over the weekend a total of 17 South Africans had been put on the emergency management system list," said spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.

"By today 13 of them had been successfully contacted or have made contact with their families."

Only four remained on the list, said Mamoepa.

He said the South African embassy in Washington was in constant touch with the United States State Department about citizens in the affected area.

The department would continue to liaise with affected families.

"The department of foreign affairs has been dealing with calls from the public enquiring about the whereabouts of family members and friends with whom they have not had contact since the devastating hurricane Katrina last week Monday."

Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said last week that natural disasters such as these highlighted the need for countries in the world to work together to address contributing factors, such as climate change.

"Our hearts go out to those families and relatives and the American people as a whole.

"It reminds us we all have to work together to do everything we can to... mitigate these kinds of natural disasters - climate change etc. This is why it is so important for the world to work together to control some of the human acts (resulting in) climate change."

The United States has been criticised for its contribution to global warming and for refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse emissions.

Some scientists have reportedly suggested global warming was contributing to an increase in the ferocity of hurricane activity.

- SAPA