OWN CORRESPONDENT, AFP, Maputo | Saturday
THE South African Air Force could embark on a rescue mission to Mozambique, where more than 40 people have died and 77_000 have lost their homes, a year after the country was ravaged by floods, the Saturday Star reports.
Foreign Affairs Director-General Sipho Pityana said: There is no question of South Africa not wanting to help. In this instance, South Africa will look and see what is available, what is possible, what is being asked.
Pityana said South Africa had already dispatched C-130 cargo planes to Beira to deliver humanitarian aid and that a rescue operation could be on the ground within 24 hours of receiving the green light from the government.
Meanwhile, thousands of people in flood-stricken central Mozambique are anxiously awaiting evacuation to higher ground as new floods are expected in the region in coming days, disaster officials said on Friday.
Silvano Langa, director of the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC) told a media conference in Maputo that at least 5_000 people face immediate danger in Mutarara district due to rising waters, on the border with southern Malawi, and in Caia, further downstream.
Rescue efforts by means of boats and planes were being put in place, he added. Roads in the area are already impassable.
More rains are expected in central Mozambique after a relative calm on Thursday, Langa said, adding that the Cahora Bassa dam in Tete province has been receiving large quantities of water from its two feeder tributaries and from Kariba dam in neighbouring Zambia and Zimbabwe.