News

Mozambican Health Minister Ivo Garrido on Wednesday announced the scrapping of the current two tier system in the country's public hospitals.

The Mozambican and Dutch governments, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday launched an initiative to provide clean drinking water and adequate sanitation for an extra million people over the next six years.

Rescue operations are due to get under way in the Zambezi Valley on Tuesday, as flooding worsens.

Mozambique's largest industrial company, the MOZAL aluminium smelter, located on the outskirts of Maputo, on Tuesday offered 100,000 US dollars to support the victims of flooding in the central province of Zambezia.

Continued rainfall in the upper Zambezi basin has forced the management of the Cahora Bassa dam to open still further the dam floodgates, thus worsening flooding downstream.

The long-awaited rehabilitation of Maputo roads will begin on 12 February, following the signing of an agreement on Monday between the City Council and the consortium that won the tender for the job.

The Mozambican government's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), has assisted 36,000 people in central and northern Mozambique who were victims of storms and flooding over the past ten days, according to INGC director Paulo Zucula.

Flooding in the Zambezi basin in central Mozambique is worsening rapidly, and the National Water Board (DNA) on Saturday once again urged anyone still living near the banks of the Zambezi to move to higher ground.

The Mozambican government's Higher Institute of International Relations (ISRI), the university-level body initially set up to train the country's diplomats, on Thursday laid the first stone for its future university campus, in the outlying Maputo suburb of Zimpeto.

The World Bank and the Mozambican government on Wednesday signed the agreement in Maputo on a loan of 70 million dollars in support of the government's poverty reduction strategy.

Flooding on the lower Zambezi in central Mozambique is likely to worsen, following a decision by the management of the Cahora Bassa dam to increase the discharges from the dam by 40 per cent as from Thursday.

The Mozambican customs service collected in 2006 revenue amounting to 10,847 billion old meticais (about 433 million US dollars), according to the deputy general manager of customs, Danilo Nala.

The Mozambican and Ethiopian governments on Saturday signed an agreement calling for an increase in bilateral cooperation.

The Mozambican branch of the Wackenhut security company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the London-based company Group 4 Securicor (G4S), has finally given its version of the labour disputes that led to Labour Minister Helena Taipo revoking, in December, the work permit of Wackenhut general manager Jon Mortimer.

There are just 228 branches of commercial banks in Mozambique, concentrated in the major cities, and ignoring most of the countryside.

The Shire river, the largest tributary of the Zambezi, has burst its banks, isolating over 43,000 people in Mutarara district, in the western Mozambican province of Tete.

The South African Tongaat-Hulett group on Thursday announced its intention to invest a further 1.3 billion rands (about 180 million US dollars) in sugar production in Mozambique, where it is a shareholder in two sugar companies, at Xinavane, in Maputo province, and Mafambisse, in Sofala.

Rains, ranging from intense to moderate, continued to fall in central Mozambique on Monday, and were at their heaviest in the already flooded city of Quelimane, capital of Zambezia province.

The number of people in government accommodation centres in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, following torrential rains and flooding, has risen to at least 3,500.

Parts of the central Mozambican city of Quelimane, capital of Zambezia province, are under water, after 339.2 millimetres of rain fell in 24 hours.