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Namibia flood situation still disastrous': officials
Windhoek (AFP) April 12, 2009 Deadly flooding in parts of Namibia has left thousands of people homeless and in need of food and shelter, aid workers and officials said Sunday. In the northeast of the country, by the border with Zambia and Botswana, the situation was still disastrous, with water levels rising, said the government's chief hydrologist Guido van Langenhove. And there were fears that heavy rains in Angola might bring more flooding south into northern Namibia. "Satellite images are indicating this," said Van Langenhove. More than 5,000 people had taken shelter in tents on higher ground at Schuckmannsburg in the northeast Caprivi region, on the border with Zambia. But the floods had covered maize fields in the area. "We have a shortage of tents to house more people and boats to reach isolated villages cut off by rising waters in the flood plains," Leonard Mwilima, the governer of Caprivi, told AFP Saturday. Water levels were falling in northern Namibia, along the border with Angola, but some 13,400 people had had to flee their homes; and more than 78,293 people had lost both the crops in their fields and those they had harvested. "These people will need food supplies for the next few months," said Erastus Negonga, the local flood relief coordinator, in Oshakati, 800 kilometres (500 miles) north of the capital Windhoek. Dozens of gravel roads in the region had also been washed away, he added. The flooding in the Namibia has already claimed 85 lives, according to the authorities. Figures released Thursday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that 344,000 people had been affected by the flooding in Namibia; 220,000 -- and 24 dead -- in Angola. With rains and flooding expected to continue into the middle of May, especially in Angola, the report expressed concern about the risk of water-borne diseases. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Fears of food shortages as Angola floods worsen
Luanda (AFP) April 3, 2009Aid agencies warned Friday that devastating floods that have hit 220,000 people in Angola could cause food shortages in a country where farming remains poor after decades of war. |
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