Mozambique fights fresh floods

Mozambique faced fresh floods threatening more than 100,000 people as another river burst its banks and more water was released…

Mozambique faced fresh floods threatening more than 100,000 people as another river burst its banks and more water was released from the Cahora Bassa reservoir at the weekend.

Mozambican authorities and aid agencies, still recovering from devastating floods in the country last year, said they were positioning food supplies and tents to help 80,000 people being evacuated from the danger zones around Marromeu and Luabo towns downstream from the dam.

Aid organisations said they were expecting more people fleeing floods to arrive at camps in Caia, a town near the Zambezi River in central Mozambique. Caia now holds about 10,000 people displaced by rising water.

Further south, the Save River basin was on alert after the river flooded earlier in the day, threatening 30,000 people.

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Mozambique has appealed for 30 million in aid and aircraft as it battles floods that have affected almost 400,000 people in the central provinces of Zambezia, Sofala, Manica and Tete. More than 77,000 people are homeless, and at least 41 have died.

Last year's floods killed 700 people and left more than 500,000 homeless, prompting one of the biggest rescue missions in southern Africa.