Mozambique: Storms displace 21,000

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Mozambique: Storms displace 21,000

5:01 CAT | 08 Mar 2018

Photo: APA

At least 21,331 people have been affected by heavy rains in Mozambique’s Niassa, Tete, Zambézia, Sofala, Manica, Inhambane and Maputo provinces during the past week, the country’s relief agency said on Thursday.National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC) spokesperson Paulo Tomás told journalists in Maputo that heavy rains, which are usually accompanied by strong winds and have offloaded between 100 and 300 millimetres of rain per day in some localities, resulted in injuries to at least six people and flooded a total of 4,206 homes in the seven provinces.

He said the province and city of Maputo registered the largest number of people affected during the past week, with more than 12,700 individuals affected.

“In Maputo province, INGC is currently providing food assistance to 330 families in two accommodation centres on the outskirts of the capital,” Tomás said.

He added that there are plans to move children whose schools were affected to other schools.

Since the beginning of the rainy season in October last year, the National Emergency Operational Centre has registered about 151,000 people affected by rains and strong winds, which have so far claimed 50 lives.

Low-lying areas of Mozambique, a tropical African nation with a huge Indian Ocean coastline, are often hit by floods, which have in the past killed hundreds of people.

Source: APA