Another cyclone was making its way towards Southern Africa on Tuesday, threatening further destruction in the flood-ravaged region, while the cash-strapped United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced it was cutting food rations to half a million Zambians.
Cyclone Gamede, which was moving towards Madagascar, has already killed two people and injured nine in the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Réunion.
The WFP in Madagascar said its main concern was for areas along the east coast, where about 100 000 people were affected by a cyclone earlier in the season.
Even if Gamede did not directly hit the island, heavy rains were likely to delay efforts by aid agencies to get relief supplies to the area until mid-week, the WFP’s Gianluca Ferrera said.
Mozambique was also closely watching the development of Gamede as the clean-up in areas hit by last week’s Cyclone Favio continued.
About 40 000 people in the resort town of Vilankulo were affected by the cyclone, during which at least eight people died and thousands of homes were destroyed, according to the Red Cross.
About 140 000 Mozambicans had already been displaced by floods caused by weeks of heavy rains in the central Zambezi River valley.
Aid agencies are warning that the displaced, 50 000 of whom have moved to emergency shelters, may be unable to return home for months and are urgently appealing for donations for food supplies.
Meanwhile, the WFP announced it was planning to cut food rations to half a million people in Zambia because of a shortage of funds.
”WFP’s resources are rapidly running out. In March or April we will be forced to stop distributing food to some of the most disadvantaged people in Zambia — such as orphans and patients undergoing treatment for Aids,” said David Stevenson, WFP’s Zambia country director.
The WFP said it needed $29-million to fund its operations in the Southern African country until the end of 2007.
The flooding that has plagued Mozambique and Madagascar has also claimed five lives and washed away crops in the east, west and north-west of Zambia, swelling the number of people in need of food aid.
”Tens of thousands of Zambians are now much healthier and more productive thanks to our food aid but without continued assistance, their lives and livelihoods will once again be put at risk,” Stevenson added.
The WFP said it would stop distributing daily meals in schools to over 100 000 orphans and vulnerable children in March and to 6 000 people living with HIV/Aids on antiretroviral therapy, and family members, in April, among others. In total, 500 000 Zambians would be affected. — Sapa-dpa