Maputo(AIM) - The number of people affected by flooding caused by torrential rains in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia has risen to 200,000, according to the provincial government.

The worst hit areas are the provincial capital, Quelimane, and the coastal districts of Pebane, Maganja da Costa, Namacurra and Nicoadala.

The provincial government has postponed by 24 hours an emergency appeal that was to have been made on Monday, on the grounds that it did not yet have enough data on the damage done by the rains.

The authorities hope to bring systematised data showing the scale of the drama to a meeting in Quelimane to which foreign diplomates, Mozambican and foreign NGOs, religious bodies and other civil society groups will be invited.

(AIM)

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