MALAWI: Tens of thousands displaced and scores killed as rains bring floods as well as relief to southern Afirca

Record ID: 687534

  • Title: MALAWI: Tens of thousands displaced and scores killed as rains bring floods as well as relief to southern Afirca
  • Date: 17th January 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Chichewa) CHRISTINA DAYASI, FLOOD VICTIM, SPEAKING IN VILLAGE: "My house, just like many others in this area, has been destroyed. I have no where to sleep. My crops have also been destroyed. I am asking and appealing to government to assist with seeds so I can plant again."
  • Embargoed: 1st February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Malawi
  • Country: Malawi
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA8DLRJIN57QCMK3SQ4Y5QMPVW4
  • Story Text: Recent rains in southern Africa may have been a blessing to some areas stricken by a two-year drought. But in Malawi, where some five million people have needed food aid due in large part to the drought, heavy rain in the south has brought new problems.
    Flooding from heavy rains has displaced some 13,000 people and destroyed over 5,000 hectares of crops according to officials.
    Floods killed scores of people across southern Africa last week as a huge rain system brought relief to the region but forced tens of thousands of the region's inhabitants to flee their homes.
    In Mozambique, the government said heavy rains were expected to continue until March and the country is on a cyclone alert.
    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 goverments and relief agencies fear that heavy rains will prevent supplies reaching the needy or will damage crops that have been planted.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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