Mozambique's disaster relief agency INGC announced plans to airlift thousands of people marooned by flooding to safety in the coming days amid predictions of fresh flooding in neighbouring Zimbabwe, local media reported Tuesday, according to DPA. The operation in Mozambique, which is aimed at people trapped along the Zambezi River valley in parts of Manica, Sofala, Tete and Zambezia provinces, was set to begin Wednesday, Joao Ribeiro, deputy director of the INGC, was quoted as saying. "People are completely stranded in their mud houses. There are schools and health centres completely under water," Ribeiro said. The rescue effort using three cargo helicopters from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and international aid agency Oxfam was due to start in Tete province, where around 9,000 people are stranded, he added. Heavy rainfall in neighbouring countries, particularly in Zimbabwe, which suffered record heavy rains in December, have aggravated the floods in Mozambique, which is regularly inundated during the summer rainy season.
