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 on Thursday.
Nearly 4 000 cholera cases have been reported since January in Angola, where Oxfam reported at least 114 people dead and 28 000 homeless in the wake of 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 are being told by the government to evacuate as water levels reach alarming heights, reports said.
Temporary shelters have been set up for evacuees in three districts after thousands of homes were destroyed in weeks of torrential rains and hurricanes, particularly 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 have been submerged by floodwaters and 850 people have 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. More than 143 people have died and more than 400 cases of cholera have been recorded.
In Malawi, hundreds of houses have collapsed and hundreds of hectares of crops have been 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. — Sapa-dpa