Nearly 150 dead in Southern African floods - cholera cases rising

Feb 8, 2007, 15:43 GMT

Johannesburg - Cholera is stalking the victims of heavy flooding in Southern Africa, which has claimed nearly 150 lives since the beginning of the year, reports said Thursday.

Nearly 4,000 cholera cases have been reported since January in Angola, where Oxfam reported at least 114 people dead and 28,000 missing in flooding that has submerged roads and damaged bridges.

Aid agencies are working with the Angolan government to contain the spread of cholera in 15 out of 18 provinces and the government has said about 2,000 people are being accommodated in temporary shelters.

In Mozambique, the death toll has risen sharply in recent days to at least 29 and people living near the country's main Zambezi River and its tributaries were being told by the government to evacuate as water levels reached alarming heights, reports said.

Temporary shelters had been set up for evacuees in three districts after thousands of homes were destroyed in weeks of torrential rains and hurricanes, particulary in the centre and north of the country, the Red Cross's Tamutka Csitemere said.

Heavy rains have also affected parts of Zambia and Malawi.

At least 484 houses had been submerged by floodwaters and 850 people had been moved to temporary shelters in Zambia, the Red Cross said.

The Red Cross also reported rising fatalities in the capital Lusaka in a cholera outbreak dating to October. Over 143 people have died and over 400 cases of cholera had been recorded.

In Malawi, hundreds of houses had collapsed and hundreds of hectares of crops washed away by torrential rainfall in Chikwaka and Nsanje districts in the south.

The worst flooding in recent years in Southern Africa was in February 2000 in Mozambique, when a cyclone left thousands homeless and devastated infrastructure.