Maputo — The Mozambican government on Tuesday announced that the start of the 2026 school year will be delayed by a month because of the catastrophic flooding that has gripped much of the southern provinces.

The Council of Ministers (Cabinet) met on Tuesday, not in Maputo, but in Xai-Xai capital of Gaza province, one of the areas worst hit by the floods. Although the floods are beginning to subside, much of Xai-Xai remains under water.

At the end of the meeting the government announced that the floods had affected 431 schools. 281 classrooms had been completely destroyed, and 80 schools had been converted into accommodation centres for people displaced by the floods. A further 218 schools are inaccessible, because they are surrounded by flood waters.

Over 427,000 pupils and 9,204 teachers were directly affected by the floods. The return to school had been scheduled for the first week of February but has now been postponed to the end of the month, for the entire country, and not just the flood-stricken areas.

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The health service has also been severely affected. According to data from the Mozambican relief agency, the National Disaster Management (INGD), 229 health facilities were impacted.

The rains also damaged 3,447 houses and completely destroyed 771 homes, as well as damaging 1,336.5 kilometres of roads, including stretches of the country's main north-south highway, National Road Number One (EN1), which is currently cut in Manhiça district, about 100 kilometres north of Maputo, disrupting road traffic between southern and northern Mozambique.

Since the start of the rainy season on 1 October, over 812,000 people have been affected by storms and floods. The vast majority of these (over 691,000) were affected since 9 January. The floods have caused 137 confirmed deaths, more than 148 injuries and six people are reported as missing.