Floods rise across Mozambique

Mennonite Central Committee
Friday, 9 March 2001

AKRON, Pa. -- The government of Mozambique has declared a state of disaster, as 80,000 people lost their homes to heavy rain and floods that began in late February. The disaster comes one year after a cyclone caused catastrophic flooding in southern Mozambique, affecting some 1 million.

This year excessive rain brought fear and uncertainty to thousands of families living along the Zambezi River, which cuts through the country's midsection and empties into the Indian Ocean.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank are responding to the recent floods with relief supplies, seeds and tools valued at $250,000 Cdn./$165,000 U.S. The aid will be administered by the Christian Council of Mozambique.

"The waters are still rising," reports Christine Wenger, MCC Mozambique co-representative. "Authorities are now evacuating 17,000 from an area thought high enough to be secure."

MCC workers Harold Wenger of Mount Joy, Pa., and Cheryl Delaplane of Ames, Okla., are helping to assess the flooded area for MCC.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org