MOZAMBIQUE:The Mozambican government is appealing for food and other aid for tens of thousands of people driven from their homes by the worst flooding for six years.
At least 30 people have been killed in Mozambique after torrential rains across southern Africa caused the Zambezi river to burst its banks. Although the government learned the lessons of the 2001 floods, in which about 700 people died, and swiftly launched missions by boat and helicopter to evacuate about 90,000 people from affected areas, it is now rapidly running short of food for those collected in 33 temporary camps, and lacks tents and other essentials for many of them.
The World Food Programme said it had begun airlifting supplies, but it planned to launch an appeal to donors to keep the food coming for at least three months because many people had lost their harvests.
Up to 285,000 people living along the Zambezi valley have been affected by the flood waters.
The director of Mozambique's national institute for disaster management, Paulo Zucula, said some of those in the camps were facing extremely difficult conditions. People had been without proper feeding for over a week and it was impossible to reach them by road.
Caroline Hooper-Box, an Oxfam worker, said about 1,000 people a day were arriving at some of the camps but for many there was no shelter except the trees.
Mozambique's prime minister, Luisa Diogo, said there was also an urgent need for clean water.