Press Release: Commission allocates EUR 2M in emergency aid to flood victims in Mozambique

The European Commission has allocated €2 million in an emergency decision to help flood victims in Mozambique. Flooding provoked by torrential rains has seriously affected people in four Southern African countries with Mozambique worst hit. Dozens have been killed, thousands are homeless and crops have been severely damaged. In the most affected region, the flooded Zambezi river valley in central Mozambique, 60,000 people have been evacuated and more than 100,000 others are at risk. An emergency expert from the Commission's Humanitarian Aid department, ECHO, is already in the affected region, assessing the basic needs of flood victims and liaising with relief agencies on rescue operations to be funded. The Commission's main objective is to ensure that flood victims are resettled in safer areas with access to clean water and adequate health care, in particular to prevent outbreaks of water-borne diseases. The emergency funds are channelled through ECHO under the responsibility of Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid.

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