Mozambique to forcibly evacuate 10,000 from floods
Pastor Dale Morgan
Mozambique to forcibly evacuate 10,000 from floods*
By Charles Mangwiro
Reuters
Sunday, January 27, 2008; 1:19 PM
MAPUTO (Reuters) - Mozambique will forcibly evacuate 10,000 people who
have defied calls to leave areas at risk of flooding, the government
said on Sunday as an advancing tropical cyclone threatened to swell
floodwaters.
"They want to look after their livestock and property," said Joao
Ribeiro, deputy director of the National Institute for Disaster
Management. "Our mission is to remove everybody from any flooded area or
those at risk."
Floods in the southern African country have already cost at least 18
lives and destroyed homes, livestock and crops. The government says
92,000 people have been rescued. Mozambique said early this month that
200,000 were at risk.
Authorities said on Sunday that the "Fame" storm system had intensified
into a full-scale cyclone. Its centre was just off the coast and it was
expected to hit flooded river valleys and bring heavy rains to the north
and centre.
The flooding has put pressure on aid agencies to provide shelter,
sanitation and water. It has also heightened fears of cholera and
malaria in the country of over 20 million where the average life
expectancy at birth is little more than 40 years.
Ribeiro told Reuters some families in the central Zambezia and Sofala
provinces and in the northern Tete province had refused to abandon
flooded homes.
"The peak of the rainy season is just two weeks ahead and this is not
the time to raise awareness. We will forcibly remove anyone in those
areas we declared risky," Ribeiro told Reuters.
"Men risk their lives in order to save goats and chickens along the
Zambezi valley which they treasure as their wealth, but our mission is
to save their lives," he said.
The United Nations has said the current floods in Mozambique could be
worse than those of 2000-2001, which caused the deaths of 700 people.
Mozambique's National Emergency Operational Centre warned provincial
authorities about the cyclone and advised them to stockpile food and
clean water.
"Keep calm and in a state of alert," the agency said in a statement.
(Editing by Muchena Zigomo and Matthew Tostevin)