Africa-Press – Mozambique. Floods in Maputo province took four lives yesterday, three in Boane and one in Maputo city, authorities have announced.
“We have a record of three deaths” notified by community leaders, announced Jacinto Loureiro, mayor of Boane, a municipality 30 kilometres south-west of Maputo.
One of the deaths was caused by electrocution, while the other two are children, one killed in the collapse of a house wall and the other a victim of drowning, Loureiro detailed.
Another child drowned in the T3 neighbourhood on the outskirts of Maputo, Paulo Tomás, spokesman for the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGD), told state broadcaster Televisão de Moçambique (TVM).
READ: Mozambique: Rains take their toll in Maputo city and province – Watch
Still in Boane, where part of the municipality is submerged by rising river waters, a car was washed away while trying to cross a bridge. The authorities are trying to determine the whereabouts of the driver.
Erosion also caused the derailment of a train comprising empty tanker wagons on the Goba line, between Mozambique to the kingdom of Eswatini.
According to the most recent INGD figures, around 2,700 families have had their houses flooded or are marooned in Maputo province, in addition to damage to various infrastructures such as roads, schools and health units.
Floods are recurrent in Mozambique at this time of year, the middle of the rainy season, but rainfall has even so been higher than expected.
Rainfall today and Wednesday exceeded 170 millimetres, more than the estimated average for the entire month of February in the capital region, according to the Mozambican National Institute of Meteorology.
Weather forecasts continue to point to heavy rain through Sunday.
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