A YEAR’s worth of rainfall over ten days starting with Boxing Day has caused severe flooding in Mozambique. More than 100 people have died. Crops, homes, and critical infrastructure have been devastated.
Zimbabwe, Eswatini, and parts of South Africa have also been badly affected.
Tearfund says that more than 645,000 people are affected in Mozambique. Its Mozambique country director, Judas Massingue, said: “This flooding has already been devastating, destroying crops and people’s livelihoods, and the situation is getting worse. Tearfund and the local church are already on the ground responding.
“Church leaders, trained by Tearfund, are using WhatsApp groups to share flood preparedness and flood-alert messages. They are opening their buildings as refuge centres for displaced people, gathering food donations from other areas of the country, and directing rescue teams to those in need of assistance. Pastors are also opening their homes to those who have nowhere else to go.”
In the areas worst affected, residents have been warned to watch out for crocodiles as floodwaters spread. At least three people are known to have been killed by crocodiles since the Limpopo burst its banks.
British emergency responders are among the international team sent to Mozambique to offer support. Responders are using boats and helicopters to reach stranded communities.
The World Food Programme (WFP) says that it needs $32 million to reach people in need of food and clean water. Its funding is down by 40 per cent on last year, restricting its response.
The Mozambique representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Xavier Creech, said that 20,000 people had been evacuated from the worst-hit areas by air and water. Temporary shelters were already overcrowded: 100,000 people were in 100 temporary shelters, including schools and churches.
As more rainfall was forecast and further flooding was possible, more people might yet have to move to safety, he said.
The country’s northernmost provinces are riven by violence because of an Islamic State insurgency, which has forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.