Nairobi — Mozambique has suffered a major blow as floods left close to a million people homeless and property worth millions of dollars destroyed. However, despite the agony, many lives were saved by rescuers from South Africa and other countries.
Mozambique was poised for accelerated economic growth this year. The country which enjoyed the fastest growth rate in the world in 1999, was projected by economists and multilateral financial institutions to continue the feat this year.
Mozambique was starting to look like a different country. The government of President Joaquim Chissano had been confirmed in office by popular vote, its often-severed road and rail networks were once again operational and tourists flocked back to its palm-lined beaches.
Since 1997, thanks to the rural population returning to the land, Mozambique was self-sufficient in its food supply. It was already being hailed as a model of how African countries could uplift themselves without falling into the dependency trap.
Until the flood disaster struck in February, turning vast swathes of southern and central Mozambique into lakes. The flood submerged Chowe area near the Limpopo River in a few hours. The southern regions in the low-lying Limpopo delta was one of the area most severely affected by Mozambique's worst floods in living memory.
Further north, flooding of the Save River caused a similar disaster. It took everything in its path. Homes, villages. The worst tragedy of all has been the destruction of bridges, roads and telecommunications infrastructure that the country has built since the end of its 17-year civil war in 1992.
Mozambique's honorary First Lady, Graca Machel says the effects of the floods amounted to more or less the same as 30 years of war. "Sometimes it's depressing, you try to be positive, but at the same time its like you move and then you are back and you have to start from scratch again. It's really very tough."
With some 800,000 Mozambicans affected, the Maputo government has appealed for 65 million dollars in humanitarian and reconstruction aid. Many are without shelter and, even when the waters subside, they will return to their towns and villages to discover their homes wrecked, their crops destroyed and their livestock dead. The UN World Food Programme is coordinating a 2.5 million dollar appeal for farmers to rework their land once they can.
South Africa has taken on most of the burden of rescuing Mozambicans stranded by flood waters. After a slow, sometimes confused start, other nations and aid agencies have joined in. France, German and British helicopters have delivered food, malaria tablets and other aid to the Limpopo River valley 200 kilometres north of Maputo. Water levels in the river had diminished alleviating the immediate danger of drowning.
The United States has set up a 40 million dollar food and relief mission dubbed "Operation Atlas Response". US defence officials had to turn a disaster relief exercise, scheduled for Cameroon, in March, into an actual relief operation in Mozambique. The US Air Force had planned to fly 100 medical personnel to Cameroon as part of an exercise called "Brilliant Lion". It had been planned that a total of 550 US troops would take part in the exercise, including pilots, ground personnel and refuellers.
In the spirit of African true solidarity, other countries have also provided some relief assistance to Mozambique.
Malawi, one of the region's poorest countries sent two helicopters, 50 tons of maize, five tons of beans and 2000 blankets. The Malawians rescued more than 1,200 people in a week from Beira. With only three helicopters and a pool of 15 pilots, they swept through Mozambique's Sofala, Inhambane, Gaza and Manica provinces, plucking desperate people off tree and rooftops.
"There was no one here to save us excerpt the Malawians and a private helicopter. If it wasn't for them we would be dead," said Francis Madira, who was airlifted after three days in a tree without food or water. Aid agencies in Beira are now receiving assistance from the American rescue mission.
Zambia has donated 120 tons of food and $600,000 worth of medicine. Tunisia has flown in 20 tons of food and blankets. Libya has been flying in a stream of food and medicine on near-continuos flight. Botswana has pledged fuel worth 4.8 million dollars. Mauritius has donated 100,000 dollars as well as substantial medical supplies. Uganda, Namibia, Ghana, Tanzania and Kenya have all pledged aid in cash and kind. The Organization of African Unity has donated 700,000 dollars.
South Africa using five Air Force Oryx helicopters and two BK 117 helicopters rescued over 13,000 people in a month. In addition to the seven SANDF helicopters, there are also four cargo planes and one light aircraft operating in Mozambique. The light aircraft has a built-in loudspeaker which is used to communicate with cut-off communities.
"We also use the loudspeaker to explain to villagers how to purify the water" said an army medic.
More than 90,000 litres of fuel have been used by the South African helicopters and planes and over 600 tons of food and water have been delivered since the beginning of the rescue operations. South African pilots have performed daring acts, picking up flood victims in swollen, raging flood waters and from tree tops and roof tops. It spent 3 million dollars in the first 10 days of the rescue mission. The South African air force has a total of 50 Oryx helicopters, 35 Alouettes and a 10 BK117's in its fleet. The air force tries to maintain a 70 per cent service capacity for its helicopters.
The floodwaters have also devastated parts of South Africa's Northern Province, Zimbabwe and Botswana. The worst in Southern Africa in 50 years. Thousands of people remain at risk, many without shelter, food or medical supplies. The Southern Africa region, forecast to notch up one of the world's highest economic growth rates this year, now faces starvation and diseases because of the floods.
About 70,000 ha of crops are lost, 30,000 head of cattle have drowned, rail links between Mozambique and South Africa and Zimbabwe are down, there is severe damage to the country's arterial EN1 highway. Across the region, authorities expect the final death toll to be higher as flooded roads, smashed bridges, downed power lines and severed telephone lines have made accurate figures impossible to gather.
Amid the flooding, a Lesotho army twin-engine aircraft left for Mozambique carrying food and medical supplies to be handed over by officials of the Disaster Management Authority (DMA) to the Mozambican government. They were also carrying a message from the Lesotho government seeking advice on what further assistance Lesotho could offer, according to Sephiri Motanyane who is heading a select ministerial committee on the Mozambican crisis.
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Motanyane said the assistance could be increased in future to include more supplies, paramedics and rescue teams if their assessors and the Mozambican government felt it was necessary.
Lesotho was concentrating on helping Mozambique because it was the hardest hit of all the countries that had suffered the effects of the cyclone as "all rivers which had been hit by the cyclone in both South Africa and Zimbabwe flow to Mozambique."
He said the whole operation of airlifting supplies was costing Lesotho Rand 500 000 but added that cost was unimportant as they were dealing with human lives.
"This is a humanitarian situation and we could not be bothered with how much it cost us," said Motanyane, whose government last month spent Rand 9 million for King Letsie III's wedding, according to the foreign minister, Tom Thabane who is honeymooning with the royal couple at the Vatican where Pope John Paul II is to bless the royal wedding.
An official of the DMA, Mrs. 'Malentsoe Ntholi said supplies to be airlifted included 3 000 loaves of brown bread, 1 000 litres each of fresh milk and drugs worth over Rand 200 000.
The flight technician of the fixed wing aircraft ferrying the supplies to Mozambique, Sergeant Rethabile Mothibeli confirmed that they would be dropping the supplies at an airport in Maputo where they would also be consulting on the need to send in more help.
AFRICANEWS News & Views on Africa from Africa Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 8034, Nairobi, Kenya email: amani@iol.it
