Floodwaters in central Mozambique have displaced at least 100 families and the death toll in neighbouring Zimbabwe has risen to at least nine as heavy rains lashed the two countries, according to IRINnews, Friday.
Sergio Moiane, administrator of the district of Buzi in Sofala Province, in central Mozambique, told local media at least 100 families had been evacuated from their homes in the low-lying area of Bandua after experiencing consistently heavy rainfall since 7 December.
He said floodwater had swept away about 188 hectares of crops, although water levels in the Buzi River had begun to recede.
In neighbouring Zimbabwe, the state-run newspaper, the Herald, said the government had declared a state of emergency in the Muzarabani District of Mashonaland Central Province, in the north.
Extensive flood damage was also reported in Masvingo Province’s Chiredzi and Chivi districts in the southeast.
The declaration of an emergency allows the state to provide assistance to Mashonaland Central Province in the southeast of the country, where two people have died and more than 600 families were left homeless by flooding.
Among the nine people reportedly killed by the flooding in Masvingo were a father and his two children, who drowned while attempting to cross the flooded Shashe River in Chivi District, also in the southeast, on Wednesday, while two other children were swept away trying to cross the swollen rivers.
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The heavy rains in Zimbabwe are part of a weather system stretching south from the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa to the southeastern shore of the continent, across Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. More rain is expected.
Kilde: www.irinnews.org
