MAPUTO, June 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Climatic misfortunes have been blamed for the loss of some 100,000 hectares of crops in Mozambique this year, according to Director of the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC) Silvano Langa.
Most of the losses were due to flooding in the central provinces, notably in the Zambezia and Pungue basins, but ironically in parts of southern Mozambique, crops were lost because there was not too much rain, the official agency AIM (Agencia de Informacoes de Mozambique) said.
Langa told journalists on Friday that thanks to an evaluation of the crops and food stocks carried out in the last two weeks by an assessment team, it was possible to determine that the flooding affected only about half as much farmland as was devastated last year.
But, many flood victims still have to be resettled. The INGC has identified safe areas to likely house 34,000 families, Langa said.
Both Sweden and the Netherlands have agreed to make available the necessary 400,000 U.S dollars through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to help the country solve the difficulties.
The International community has disbursed about 27 million dollars for the support of the flood victims in the country.
At the height of the floods, the Mozambican government and the U.N. agency in the country appealed for about 36.5 million dollars.
As for a donor conference originally scheduled for May, Langa said that it will only take place in July pending the conclusion of a draft report on the floods which is currently circulating in the various offices of the U.N. agency for comment. Enditem
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