WFP to feed 80,000 after Mozambique floods

A woman, carrying a baby, wades through a flooded street in the outskirts of Chokwe, southern Mozambique. By Johannes Myburgh (AFP/File)

MAPUTO (AFP) - The World Food Programme (WFP) will give emergency food to more than 80,000 people in Mozambique after twin cyclones left 32 dead in the impoverished country in January, officials said Tuesday.

Mozambique's government requested help for 16,000 families in flood-hit central province Zambezia, said WFP spokeswoman Naomi Scott.

"Approximately 16,000 families -- that's what we've been asked to supply for and that will be in Zambezia tomorrow," Scott told AFP. "That's over 80,000 people."

Indian Ocean tropical storms Dando and Funso killed at least 32 people and affected 125,000 in January, according to Mozambican emergency operations head Dulce Chilundo.

"Tens of thousands of people have been removed by force from flooded or flood-prone areas for refusing to leave their houses with their belongings, especially livestock and farm crops," Chilundo told AFP.

"These people are now facing housing and food shortages in resettlement places. The temporary shelters and food that we made available isn't enough for everybody."

More than 100,000 hectares of farmland have been lost across the southern African country, where 80 percent of the population relies on subsistence farming.

The WFP will supply maize from its 9,500 tonnes of food stock in Mozambique, it said.

"Obviously there are worries on a long-term because the crop fields have been destroyed," said Scott.

Rivers remained above alert levels in some areas Tuesday morning.

Flooding had subsided in the south and north, though water levels were rising in central Mozambique because of ongoing rains and water coming downstream from neighbouring countries, according to the National Water Board's Rute Nhamucho.

Flood-prone Mozambique was hit by two cyclones four years ago. In 2000, more than 700 people died and half a million were left without shelter in the worst flooding in the country's living memory.