African Leaders Seek Disaster Warning System

In the wake of devastating floods, the leaders of seven southern African nations on Tuesday urged creation of a regional system to forecast and deal with natural disasters.

While the hardest hit, Mozambique is just one of the nations in the region that has been battered by heavy rains and flooding. Relief efforts on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar gained momentum Tuesday as food-laden French military helicopters and other aircraft delivered aid to flooded areas.

Floods have also chased hundreds from their homes in South Africa and have washed away more than 10,000 homes in Botswana.

The heads of state said the region’s economic development is at risk unless an early-warning system is established to alert residents to storms. They appealed to international donors to fund it.

“Competent disaster management must be an integral part of common efforts for development,” Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano said.

Heavy rains in the past two months have devastated southern Africa, particularly central and southern Mozambique, where flooding together with two cyclones has killed at least 492 people, left 330,000 homeless and caused an estimated quarter-billion dollars in damage to roads, bridges and public buildings.

While international aid groups say thousands of people may have been killed in the flooding, the final death toll might not go that high because South African military helicopters rescued more than 14,600 stranded people.

The heads of state appealed to the international community to cancel all foreign debts owed by Mozambique to enable it to channel its money into rebuilding the southeast African country.

Mozambique’s own problems were compounded by its location. Nine of Mozambique’s 15 rivers originate in neighboring countries, where overgrazing and other poor land management have sapped the soil’s ability to absorb water, leading in recent years to more flooding downstream.

U.N. special envoy Ross Mountain said Tuesday that the United Nations and the Mozambican government will issue a new appeal later this week for reconstruction funds.

Nearly $65 million raised from a joint U.N.-Mozambique appeal on Feb. 23 has already been spent, Mountain said.

Donors have pledged at least $108 million in relief aid for Mozambique. The amount excludes the cost of aid operations by the militaries of South Africa and at least six Western nations, including the United States, he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed to donor countries to give Mozambique “as much help as possible, and as soon as possible.” He said Mozambique had been an “inspiring example” of progress in Africa before the disaster struck.

Tuesday’s summit in Maputo was held under the aegis of the Southern African Development Community. Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Bakili Muluzi of Malawi, Sam Nujoma of Namibia, Benjamin William Mkapa of Tanzania, Frederick Chiluba of Zambia and Festus Mogae of Botswana were among those who attended.

Also Tuesday, the U.N. Development Program and the National Institute for Mine Clearance in Mozambique announced an emergency plan to help clear land mines that may have been displaced by the flooding.

Up to 2 million mines were left over from Mozambique’s 16-year civil war, and authorities fear that areas previously considered safe may now be littered with mines.

“The flooding has changed the whole basis for our demining work in the affected areas,” the U.N. Development Program representative in Mozambique, Emmanuel de Casterle, said in a statement released at U.N. headquarters in New York.