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afrol.com / AENS, 15 February - Continuing heavy rains in southern Malawi have left an estimated 60,000 people homeless after flash floods and mudslides destroyed houses in 107 villages. Disaster relief commissioner, Lucious Chikuni, said on Friday that the south eastern Nsanje district, on Malawi's border with Mozambique, was cut off from the outside world after roads and bridges over the Shire River were destroyed. Chikuni said all 60 000 victims had been evacuated to higher ground in the Lower Shire Valley and were currently being sheltered in schools, clinics, churches and other public buildings. "No-one has been reported dead, but many people have had all their property washed away," he said after visiting the disaster area by helicopter. - Massive areas of land are under water, making it very difficult for our relief teams to get in and distribute food and medical aid to stranded villagers. Military helicopters have been roped in to airlift relief teams and aid to villagers, while the Malawi Army is also assisting with emergency road reconstruction. The neighbouring Chikwawa district, also on the Mozambican border, is preparing for similar floods after the Shire destroyed houses and crops in 25 villages. The Shire feeds the Zambezi River just before it into Mozambique, where both the Zambezi and Pungwe rivers burst their banks in central Mozambique this week swamping homes and farmland in Sofala province. The flooding has affected 35,000 people and killed two more villagers, bringing to 17 the number of people killed in flooding in Mozambique this year. Mozambique is still struggling to recover from the worst floods in living memory after cyclones battered the country between February and March last year. Malawi's Chikwawa District Commissioner Kiswell Dakamau said on Friday that large numbers of livestock had drowned when scores of local streams burst their banks but confirmed that no loss of human life had been reported yet. Dakamau said low-lying villages were being evacuated, while 10 families of workers in the Lengwe National Park were airlifted to safety after floodwaters submerged large tracts of the game reserve. The new wave of flooding follows smaller flash-floods which destroyed crops and property in Malawi's northern district of Karonga last week. Scores of villagers were left homeless, but no-one was reported injured. By Brian Ligomeka,
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