OCHA said in its latest situation report on Mozambique on Thursday that there had been little rainfall upstream in the Zambezi basin over the last few days, resulting in the river level falling slowly. "The river level of the Zambezi is fluctuating with a tendency to go down, although it still remains nearly three metres above flood level. The levels of the Buzi and the Save Rivers are also gradually decreasing," OCHA noted.

It added that the road between the coastal port city of Beira in the southern Sofala province and Chimoio, further north in Manica province, had been cut for the fourth time this year. "The poor condition of the road to Caia (near Mozambique's northern border with Malawi) constitutes a severe problem for the distribution of assistance," OCHA added.

The humanitarian agency said the WFP was working with 227,000 people as the basis of its planning for the supply and distribution of food aid. "It has distributed some 1,800 mt of food since the beginning of the emergency," it said. OCHA cautioned that partners to distribute food had not yet been found for Changara and Mutarara districts in the northern Tete province. "UNICEF and WFP are working on a supplementary feeding of 36,000 children and pregnant and lactating mothers," said OCHA.