Rescue personnel evacuate residents by boat from flooding caused by heavy rains in the Boane district of Maputo on February 11, 2023.
- Four people have died in floods in southern Mozambique.
- The flooding followed days of incessant rain.
- More than 30,000 people are said to have been affected by the floods.
Four people have died in flooding after days of unrelenting rain in southern Mozambique, the country’s risk management institute said on Saturday.
The National Institute for Disaster Management (INGD) said the deaths occurred around the capital Maputo, while 14,000 people were evacuated out of the more than 30,000 people estimated to have been affected by the floods.
“We still have a lot of people to rescue, (but) we are using small boats,” INGD director Luisa Meque told a press conference.
“We thought that if we had helicopters we would be in a better position to respond to the emergency, but that is not the case,” he said.
The hardest-hit district is Boane, some 30 kilometers southeast of Maputo, the coastal capital.
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Some 4,000 houses were inundated when two bridges collapsed and several roads were completely submerged.
“Our houses are full of water, we have nowhere to sleep. Our shed left with the rain, we have no food,” said Lurdes Simao Dove, after being rescued from the Boane district.
“People are being washed away, there are many houses… they are all submerged by water,” he said.
With more rain forecast in the coming days, the flooding is expected to worsen.
“The forecasts show that this rain will continue to fall until Monday, (and) we think that the situation of the river basins is critical,” said the head of the water resources department, Agostinho Vilanculos.
He expressed his fear that the main highway linking Maputo and the rest of the country in the north is at risk of flooding.
Lying downstream of several major river basins and experiencing heavy rainfall and tropical cyclones, Mozambique is regularly hit by devastating floods.
