MAPUTO, Mozambique — Tens of thousands of people are being rescued across southern Mozambique as rising floodwaters devastate large parts of the country in what authorities and residents describe as the worst flooding in a generation.
Rescue teams from Brazil, South Africa, and the United Kingdom have joined Mozambican emergency services in life-saving operations as rivers burst their banks following weeks of heavy rainfall.
“For me, this is the first time I have experienced a calamity of this magnitude,” said 24-year-old mechanic Tomaz Antonio Mlau. “Elders say a similar disaster took place in the 1990s.”
Mlau and his family live near Marracuene, a town about 30 kilometres north of the capital, Maputo. They woke up to find their home submerged after the Inkomati River overflowed.
“When a rescue boat came a few hours afterwards, we did not hesitate to board it and come to safety in Marracuene town,” he said, adding that they were forced to abandon all their belongings.
Mlau, his wife, and their two children are among about 4,000 people sheltering in six temporary centres, including schools and churches. Many of those displaced are farmers from low-lying areas whose homes, crops, and livestock have been destroyed.
“We lost everything in the floodwaters, including houses, TVs, fridges, clothes, and livestock,” said 67-year-old rice farmer Francisco Fernando Chivindzi. “Our farms are under water.”
Chivindzi comes from Hobjana, one of several neighbourhoods flooded between the left bank of the Inkomati River and the coastal tourism resort of Macaneta.
“The floodwaters reached heights we were not expecting,” he said. “We have never experienced this level of flooding in my lifetime.”
He urged residents still stranded in trees or on rooftops to accept evacuation efforts. “We should value life more than goods,” he said, praising boat owners who carried out rescues free of charge.
Marracuene mayor Shafee Sidat said evacuation efforts were ongoing but faced resistance from some residents unwilling to leave their homes.
“We still have people to rescue, some of whom refuse to abandon the risk areas,” Sidat said. “We reckon that more than 10,000 people are affected in Marracuene as a whole.”
According to provisional data from the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction, at least 642,122 people have been affected by flooding since 7 January, mainly in southern and central Mozambique. Twelve deaths have been recorded from the recent floods, bringing the total death toll since the rainy season began in October to 125.
Authorities fear the situation could worsen due to heavy rainfall in neighbouring South Africa, where the Inkomati River originates.
“We are worried about discharges from a South African dam on the Inkomati River,” Sidat said. “Our town is the last one downstream before the waters reach the Indian Ocean.”
Flooding has also severely disrupted transport. The government has banned all vehicle movement on roads between Maputo and Gaza provinces after major sections, including the N1 highway, were submerged.
Transport Minister João Matlombe said the closures had already triggered shortages and price increases of food, coconut, and fuel, even in distant regions such as Tete, more than 1,500 kilometres away.
Conditions in evacuation centres remain difficult. “There isn’t yet enough food,” said Aninha Vicente Mivinga, a police officer sheltering with her children. “On the first day, children slept hungry.”
Education Minister Samaria Tovela has indicated the cabinet may postpone the start of the 2026 academic year to allow schools to continue hosting displaced families in the worst-hit provinces.
As waters continue to rise, uncertainty dominates. “We’ll restart life from scratch,” Chivindzi said. Mlau, however, is unsure whether returning home is safe. “Even if waters subside,” he said, “I am not sure I’ll go back there.”
