Food now the priority in Mozambique

With the muddy, foul waters of the Limpopo River receding, rescue workers in southern Mozambique turned their attention Saturday to rushing help to hundreds of thousands of thirsty, exhausted flood victims.

With the muddy, foul waters of the Limpopo River receding, rescue workers in southern Mozambique turned their attention Saturday to rushing help to hundreds of thousands of thirsty, exhausted flood victims.

And by lunchtime the UK disaster appeal total had reached £6.1 million, with 225,000 people having called its hotlines.

Three South African helicopters were planning to ferry about 2,000 people to dry land where overburdened aid agencies could feed and shelter them, said one pilot, Maj. Matthew Carter.

Another four South African helicopters and five airplanes were expected to deliver aid Saturday to residents whose homes along the Limpopo River have been swept away. Britain, France and United States have promised more aid, but it was not immediately clear when it would begin arriving in force in the beleaguered southeast African nation.

While delivering aid remained the main challenge in southern Mozambique, more than 15,000 people remained stranded farther north in the Save River valley, aid workers said Friday. Most of them have been without food and clean water for more than a week.

Meanwhile, the threat of disease loomed, spawned by the fetid, debris and carcass-filled water.

Citing reports from medical officials, Carter said an estimated 10 percent of the 2,000 people remaining in the Limpopo River had contracted cholera, a highly contagious and often lethal disease.

According to aid officials, hunger and thirst were driving people still perched in trees to drink foul water and eat the bodies of drowned animals.

Already, the death toll from the flooding, mostly from drowning, is believed to run into the thousands.

Mozambican officials estimate that 1 million people need food, medicine and other aid throughout southeast African country of 19 million people. Much of the country is accessible only by air because of the floods.

Aid agencies and weather forecasters were keeping a watchful eye on Cyclone Gloria, lingering in the Indian Ocean off the southern Mozambican coast.

Forecasters said Cyclone Gloria, which earlier threatened to make landfall in the flood-hit area, had instead weakened and turned away. They said normal-to-heavy rain was expected in the region through Monday.

The first of two British planes carrying rescue boats arrived in the Mozambican capital of Maputo on Friday. Fuel problems delayed a U.S. plane loaded with boats from the Miami area that has been expected to reach Maputo on Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Maputo said.

Two U.S. C-130s loaded with relief supplies departed Ramstein Air Base in Germany early Saturday. They were scheduled to arrive Tuesday in neighboring South Africa.

Six hundred U.S. troops expected to arrive in Mozambique soon were likely to be based in the central city of Beira, Mozambican officials said. U.S. Embassy offici or when they would arrive.

Capt. Medeiros Souza of Portugal's navy said 45 Portuguese Marines were set to arrive Sunday in Mozambique to aid relief operations.

Lt. Col. Jaco Klopper, commander of the South African Air Force's rescue operation, said late Friday that rescue workers believe most people caught by the Limpopo flood in southern Gaza province have been moved to safety. Planes would go out today "to comb the area to make sure," he said.

Since Feb. 11, the South African air force has rescued more than 12,000 people from the raging floodwaters.

Despite that glimmer of good news, an inflatable boat carrying 17 refugees capsized Friday along the Limpopo. Four toddlers fell into the swift current and drowned, said Peter Britz, the boat's South African pilot.

The engine stopped after hitting some debris, and the boat slammed into a tree and flipped over. Britz clambered onto the tree limbs along with the other survivors and got a taste of what thousands of people have endured since huge swaths of central and southern Mozambique were flooded by torrential rains last month.

"There are snakes in the trees, stinging ants, wasps and lots of mosquitos," Britz said after rescuers ferried him and the 13 others to safety hours later.

"These people have been sitting in the trees all these days with these things crawling on them and biting them," Britz said. "I didn't realize what they were going through until I got stuck in a tree."