Mozambique rains kill 22, cyclone alert declared

JOHANNESBURG - At least 22 people have been swept to their death in Mozambique and thousands more have fled heavy rains there and in neighbouring South Africa and Malawi, emergency officials said today.

Government officials in Mozambique said the death toll had risen sharply from the initial eight reported a week ago, and heavy rains were expected to continue, forcing the government to put the country on a cyclone alert.

Rains had fuelled the spread of disease, with 114 cases of cholera reported in the central Sofala region. But Mozambique had contained the crisis well and there were no deaths from cholera, state administration minister Lucas Chomera said.

"The death toll stands at 22. Heavy rains continue but there is no cause for alarm yet," said a senior emergency official.

Officials said Mozambique's major rivers remained near the 7-metre flood alarm level but were not a concern at the moment.

In 2000, devastating floods in Mozambique killed an estimated 700 people and made up to 500,000 homeless.

Drought in southern Africa left several million people in need of urgent food handouts last year. Now governments and relief agencies fear that heavy rains will prevent supplies reaching the needy or will damage crops that have been planted.

Mozambique weather services predicted rain would continue to fall over the entire week. Meteorologists have forecast normal to above-normal levels of rainfall in central and northern Mozambique to the end of the rainy season in March.

Rains damaged roads and other infrastructure, officials said, making it difficult for relief workers to distribute food to some 800,000 people cut off in the Sofala and Gaza regions where stocks were declining fast.

The Limpopo railway, linking neighbouring Zimbabwe to Maputo port, had also been closed after rain-induced damage and weather prevented planned repairs.

In South Africa, police reported floods killed at least two people in a settlement in Johannesburg and said several shacks in one squatter village had been swept away.

One of the main border posts between South Africa and Botswana was closed due to flooding, a Home Affairs spokesman said. Traffic was being diverted to alternative crossings.

Near the town of Standerton in rural Mpumalanga province, police planned to evacuate thousands of people marooned there by rain. Standerton's two dams were between 114 per cent and 150 per cent full, weather officials said.

Near the Malawi town of Chikwakwa, south of the commercial capital Blantyre, rains have killed one person and displaced at least 1,000 people in the past week, Malawi officials said.

- REUTERS