Floods cut off key supply route

A river in central Mozambique has overflowed its banks for the third time in a month, flooding a key supply route.

The waters of the Pungwe River submerged a stretch of the road between the towns of Mutua and Tica, about 37 miles west of Beira, capital of the central Sofala province, Radio Mozambique reported yesterday. The road links the port of Beira to Zimbabwe.

Over the past three months, flooding in Mozambique has killed more than 70 people and almost 400,000 others have lost homes, crops or livelihood. The southern African country is still recovering from last year’s devastating floods that killed 700 and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

Rain has been falling since the middle of last week in the basins of the Pungue and Buzi rivers, which was likely to lead to more flooding, Radio Mozambique said.

In the central Zambezia province, the road leading to the provincial capital Quelimane was reopened to light vehicles after a three-week closure, the radio said. The closures had sent the prices of food and other goods soaring in the town.

Filipe Lucio, the director of the National Institute of Meteorology, told the radio station that rains in neighbouring Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe continued to pose a threat as the water fed Mozambique’s already swollen rivers.

To date, international donors have provided about stg£8m in flood relief. In February, the government said about stg£26m was needed to aid flood victims and repair essential infrastructure.