Maputo, Mozambican — Floods that hit the central Mozambican provinces of Tete, Manica, Sofala and Zambezia from January to March have claimed 109 lives and displaced about 300,000 people.

Most the displaced are now temporarily sheltered in accommodation centres, senior officials said Wednesday.

Of these deaths, 71 occurred in Zambezia, 28 in Tete and six in Sofala, provincial governors Lucas Chomera (Zambezia), Tomas Mandlate (Tete) and Felicio Zacarias (Sofala) told Radio Mozambique.

There were four deaths in Manica, reported in March by the National Disaster Management Institute.

In Zambezia there are 420,000 people affected, 141,000 of whom are displaced, and Chomera said that besides the human toll, the floods also destroyed many tertiary access roads, and large areas farmland.

Mandlate said that the floods seriously damaged 121 schools and three health centres in Tete.

Zacarias reported that, besides the deaths, more than 81,000 people were displaced, more than 30,000 hectares of crops were destroyed and 78 classrooms were submerged in the flood waters, affecting 27,000 pupils and 300 teachers.

The number of those taking refuge at accommodation centres include 14,000 people in Manica, out of the estimated 74,000 affected from the districts of Tambara, Mossurize and Sussundenga.

Manica provincial governor Soares Nhaca estimated that 44 billion meticais (about 2.3 million US dollars) was needed to reopen access roads in his area.

Once the critical flood period is over at the end of the rainy season, however, the priority in the four provinces is to resettle the displaced people, according to the officials.