Relief efforts against flooding.

Efforts are underway to assist the victims of the heavy flooding in Mozambique which has left at least 29 people dead and a further 85,000 homeless in central and northern parts of the country. Humanitarian aid agencies have been delivering food and other essential items to people sheltering in temporary accommodation centres while the government has deployed troops to evacuate people from the worst-hit areas. An estimated 40,000 hectares of crops have been lost and in some places water levels are reported to be nearing those of the devastating floods in 2001, when some 700 people lost their lives and 500,000 were displaced from their homes; and experts say that continuing heavy rainfall over some parts of the southern African region could cause the situation to deteriorate over the coming days.

Mozambique is particularly prone to flooding as it traversed by the lower part of the Zambezi river, whose basin is also shared by Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Tanzania.