Storms and flooding have killed at least 13 people since torrential rains started in the central Mozambique province of Sofala last week, state-run radio reported on Tuesday.
Eight of the victims were struck by lightning and five drowned in floods unleashed by the storms, Radio Mozambique reported.
The main highway was inundated, cutting off Sofala’s Buzi district from the rest of the country. In the provinces’s Dondo district, the Pungue River burst its banks, flooding agricultural fields belonging to 520 families.
Heavy rains also caused extensive damage in Nampula, Manica, Tete, Gaza and Inhambane provinces. Flimsy houses were swept away, leaving thousands of impoverished families homeless.
The incessant rains inundated low-lying neighbourhoods in Mozambique’s second city of Beira, forcing hundreds of families to seek refuge in churches, schools and relatives’ homes.
Power supply was disrupted in some areas.
Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, suffers from frequent flooding. In 2000 and 2001, floods killed more than 800 people, left hundreds of thousands of homeless and severely damaged roads and bridges. – Sapa-AP