Maputo, Mozambique — A total of 71,000 hectares of crops were destroyed bye floods that hit central Mozambique this year leaving about 99,500 families at risk of hunger, reports Tuesday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias".

Citing Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Helder Muteia, the paper says that this figure derives from the most recent assessment of the damage caused by the floods in the four provinces affected, namely Tete, Manica, Sofala and Zambezia.

Muteia said that 23,200 families were affected in Tete, 28,700 in Sofala, 33,500 in Zambezia, and 14,100 in Manica.

"The assessment work is still continuing in the affected areas, but we can only expect to confirm the data of the latest assessment, maybe with a slight increase. Anyhow, there are guarantees that the needs in terms of seeds and agricultural tools will be covered", said Muteia.