Death toll from floods rises in Mozambique, South Africa

by AFP Staff Writers
Maputo (AFP) Jan 19, 2026
Mozambique battled severe flooding Monday as the death toll after weeks of rain climbed, with more bodies also recovered in neighbouring South Africa.

Heavy rains and storms have battered the two southern African countries for weeks, claiming at least 150 lives, authorities said.

More than 110 people had been killed in Mozambique since early October, the start of the rainy season, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGD) database showed Monday, with 14 of the deaths in the past week.

Large parts of the country were still underwater, prompting President Daniel Chapo to cancel his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos as rescue operations continued.

In South Africa, meanwhile, authorities said the death toll had risen to 37 in the northeastern Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces -- which border Mozambique -- after weeks of heavy downpours.

In Mozambique, rivers burst their banks and swallowed entire neighbourhoods in several regions, displacing thousands including a woman who was forced to give birth on a roof as she sheltered from flood waters.

Images on social media showed brown water swirling through the city of Xai Xai, which is around 200 kilometres (125 miles) northeast of the capital Maputo and in the Limpopo River basin.

South Africa's defence force said it had sent a search and rescue team, including a helicopter, to assist Mozambique's emergency operations.

- Disaster response -

"Severe flooding has now affected over 432,000 people in Mozambique, with 49,000+ evacuated into accommodation centres," the UN's children's charity UNICEF said.

The situation was exacerbating already difficult conditions for the area's impoverished population, "pushing already exhausted communities further into crisis," said British charity Save the Children.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa linked the crisis to climate change, saying it underlined the need for funding for developing countries, often least equipped to handle the effects of severe weather.

Countries in the Global South "are the ones who are suffering the ravages of climate change when our countries and our nations did not cause it," he said during a visit to flood?hit areas of Mpumulanga.

The WaterAid charity described the unfolding situation as a "climate crisis" and cautioned that more heavy rainfall -- and even a possible cyclone -- could hit the region in the coming days.

"What we are witnessing and experiencing here is about the effects of climate change," regional director Robert Kampala told AFP.

"The southern Africa region experiences a situation which is either too little or too much water," he said. "The heavy polluters are not paying the price of the impact and cost of a climate crisis."

The non?profit organisation, which has suspended operations in three Mozambican cities because of the flooding, said it had already begun detecting cholera cases.