Five killed, 3,500 homeless after heavy rains in Mozambique

MAPUTO (AFP) - Torrential rains in central Mozambique have claimed five lives and rendered more than 3,500 homeless since the weekend, the National Institute for Disaster Management said.

"Three people died of electrocution in Quelimane and two have drowned in Namacurra district. More than 3,500 people have been housed in makeshift shelters as their homes have been flooded," institute director Paulo Zucula told AFP Tuesday.

"The situation is alarming in Quelimane," he said adding that almost the entire length of the coastal town in the northern Zambezia province was flooded.

"For the moment there is only cholera but no other epidemics," he added.

In early 2000, about 1,000 people lost their lives in floods that caused widespread devastation in the southern African nation, which is also struggling to rebuild after a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992.