MOZAMBIQUE/UNITED KINGDOM: AID WORKERS CONTINUE TO FERRY FOOD AID TO FLOOD VICTIMS IN WAKE OF CYCLONE ELINE

Record ID: 337041

  • Title: MOZAMBIQUE/UNITED KINGDOM: AID WORKERS CONTINUE TO FERRY FOOD AID TO FLOOD VICTIMS IN WAKE OF CYCLONE ELINE
  • Date: 25th February 2000
  • Summary: CHOKWE, MOZAMBIQUE (FEBRUARY 24, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. AERIAL VIEW OF FLOODED PLAINS (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. PAN DOWN/SLV: SOUTH AFRICAN AIRFORCE HELICOPTER ARRIVING (2 SHOTS) 0.24 3. VARIOUS FOOD AID OFFLOADED, HELICOPTER LEAVING (9 SHOTS) 1.27 4. VARIOUS CENTRE FOR DISPLACED PEOPLE/ PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM EXHAUSTION (6 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 11th March 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CHOKWE, MOZAMBIQUE/ LONDON, ENGLAND UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: Mozambique
  • Reuters ID: LVAC2VMGN1TDZ3Y5IZ63V05N5M9K
  • Story Text: Aid workers continued to ferry food aid to flood
    victims in Mozambique in the wake of Cyclone Eline.

    Torrential rain in the past few weeks has caused
    devastating floods across southern Africa, and water-borne
    diseases now threaten hundreds of thousands of people.

    Using helicopters supplied by the South African airforce,
    the U.N.World Food Programme (WFP) carried aid to refugees at
    a camp in Chokwe on Friday (February 25).

    The WFP warned that cases of malaria and diarrhoea had
    increased sharply and that prices of staple foods were
    escalating in urban centres as people who had lost their homes
    in the countryside crowded into towns and cities.

    Rivers in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe burst their
    banks as Cyclone Eline swept west from Mozambique, bringing
    new rains to lands already waterlogged by two weeks of storms.

    The floods have hit Mozambique just as the country was
    recovering from years of civil war.

    "Ironically Mozambique was a country that was really
    getting back on it's feet after a civil war and a lot of it's
    progress has been wiped away by the floods.Bridges, roads,
    homes, schools, all of those are going to have to be
    reconstructed and it's clearly going to take years for them to
    get back on their feet," said UNICEF spokesperson Anita
    Tiessen in London on Friday (February 25).

    Mozambique, one of Africa's poorest countries, was on its
    way to recovery from a ruinous 16-year civil war which ended
    in 1992, but those gains are now being eroded by the worst
    floods in 50 years.

    President Joaquim Chissano has appealed for over $60
    million in international aid and the United Nations issued a
    worldwide appeal for a further $13 million to help more than
    800,000 people affected by the floods and Cyclone Eline.

    The EU is giving $1 million and former colonial power
    Portugal has pledged $2 million.
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