Mozambique death toll rises after heavy flooding

Mouzinho Saide, Mozambique’s Deputy Health Minister, said the death toll in the country has risen to 100, while 150,000 persons were displaced, after heavy flooding.

He said on Wednesday in Maputo, that the floods have killed 117 people, an increase from the last balance of at least 84 dead a week ago.

The UN has earlier said that the rains in early January had triggered floods affecting nearly one million people in Mozambique, Malawi, Madagascar and Zimbabwe.

It added that more than a quarter of a million people in total were forced to leave their homes.

Saide noted that majority of the deaths occurred in the central coastal region of Zambezia, and caused by drowning, lightning and collapsed houses.

Meanwhile, Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika, said on Tuesday, that his country, one of the poorest in the world, would probably miss its 5.8 per cent economic growth forecast this year, due to the rains.

He said the lack of funds has hampered the region’s ability to tackle the effects of the disaster.

(Reuters/NAN)