THE World Food Programme (WFP) is on alert to evacuate thousands of people in central Mozambique after the Pungoe river burst its banks, flooding local farming villages. At least 19 people have died in the flooding centred on the central Mozambican provinces of Zambezia, Sofala and Tete. Authorities had warned people at high risk to leave the flooded areas in the latest inundation, but peasant farmers were refusing to go. – Reuters