South Africa on Sunday declared a national disaster after widespread flooding that destroyed homes and killed dozens, while thousands sought shelter in neighbouring Mozambique.
Heavy rains and storms have battered the two southern African countries for weeks, claiming more than 30 lives in South Africa’s northeastern Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces.
Rivers burst their banks and swallowed entire neighbourhoods in several regions of Mozambique, displacing thousands, including a woman who was forced to give birth on a roof as she sheltered from flood waters.
“I classify the disaster as a national disaster,” the head of South Africa’s National Disaster Management Centre, Elias Sithole, said in a statement Sunday.