Maputo — Mozambique's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), has hired a Puma helicopter from South Africa to carry food and other emergency supplies to areas in the northern province of Nampula badly hit by tropical depression "Delfina" earlier this month.

According to a report in the Maputo daily "Noticias", the helicopter arrived on Tuesday, and was sent immediately to Nampula city. It can carry 3.4 tonnes of goods per trip, and is expected to move about 10 tonnes per day.

The main problem for relief operations is that the torrential rains brought by "Delfina" have cut roads across the province, isolating many areas from Nampula city. These places are currently only accessible by air, or, in some cases, by boat.

Thus on Saturday, boats hired from the company Pesca Norte were used to take food and soap from the port of Angoche to the localities of Aube and Larde, where several villages are still under water. About 30,000 people are at risk in these two localities.

The INGC also hopes to acquire seeds to allow 10,000 families, whose crops were swamped in Nampula and in the neighbouring province of Zambezia, to replant.

Meanwhile, the normal electricity supply to Nampula city was restored on Monday night, after the publicly-owned electricity company, EDM, repaired damage to the line from the Cahora Bassa dam. The storms earlier in the month had knocked down four pylons about 20 kilometres south of Nampula. Work on restoring normal power supplies elsewhere in the province is continuing, and may take another week.

The railway from the port of Nacala to Malawi remains closed. The port and rail company CFM is working on the damaged track, and hopes to have it operational again by the end of next week.