Crocodile warnings as floods devastate southern Africa

Devastating floods have killed more than 100 people in southern Africa since the beginning of the year and displaced hundreds of thousands, as authorities and aid workers warn of hunger, cholera and attacks by crocodiles that have spread with the waters.

More than 70 people have died in Zimbabwe and 30 in South Africa, where hundreds of people were evacuated from Kruger National Park earlier this month after a deluge of rain.

The death toll in southern Mozambique is 13 people, according to the national disaster management agency, including three killed by crocodiles as the Limpopo River and other waterways overflowed.

Henriques Bongece, the secretary of Mozambique’s Maputo province, which includes the country’s capital of the same name, says the animals seemed to have been washed into the area by flood water from South Africa.

“We want to urge everyone not to approach still waters because crocodiles are drifting in these waters.

The rivers have connected with all areas where there is water,” Bongece was quoted as saying by local media last week.

One person was killed by a crocodile in Maputo, in the town of Moamba, and two in the neighbouring Gaza province, officials say.

Southern Africa has been hit by increasingly extreme weather in recent years as the climate crisis has worsened, veering between record-breaking droughts, cyclones and extreme rainfall.

The death toll in Mozambique is expected to rise.

Officials say the flooding was the worst in the country since 2000, when about 700 people were killed.

Almost 400 000 people have been displaced, with many rescued by helicopter from trees and rooftops.

Although it has not rained for several days, flood waters are still rising in some areas as water continues to flow across the border from South Africa.

Huge swathes of land are underwater and the main N1 highway connecting Mozambique from north to south remains closed.

Aid workers warn of the risk of cholera and other water-borne diseases in camps that are housing almost 100 000 people.

“Most of these camps are not prepared to receive a lot of people and they don’t have basic infrastructure – good toilets, places to deposit garbage.

So for sure, soon we will have cases of cholera,” says WaterAid Mozambique director Gaspar Sitefane.

Food security is also a concern, with about 60 000 hectares of farmland lost to the floods and more than 58 000 livestock killed, according to Mozambique’s disaster agency.

It was taking longer to get funding for the emergency response than in the past and the amounts being pledged were smaller, says Sitefane.

Many developed countries have slashed aid budgets in recent years, with many diverting funds to defence.

In South Africa, the government has set up a recovery fund for the internationally renowned Kruger National Park and is soliciting donations from national and international donors.

The environment minister, Willie Aucamp, told local media that repairs to damaged infrastructure such as bridges and roads could cost as much as R700 million.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

– The Guardian

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