5 Killed, 10 Hurt in Rush to Get Aid

Desperate flood victims rushed at aid trucks in a Mozambican camp, resulting in chaos that left five people dead and 10 injured, officials said Friday, blaming a poorly organized relief mission.

It was unclear whether the victims of Thursday’s incident were trampled or run over by one of the aid trucks bringing supplies to the Chiaquelane camp, Foreign Minister Leonardo Simao said.

“A crowd came in because everybody wanted to get some [aid]. It seemed some of the distributors panicked, and maybe a driver wanted to run away with his truck or something like that,” said Simao, who oversees relief efforts in this flood-stricken southeast African country.

UNICEF spokesman Ian MacLeod said he had received two unconfirmed reports that people had rushed the trucks as the aid was unloaded.

The government has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

The charity distributing the aid, the Brazilian-based Universal Church of the Reign of God, had not gone through the World Food Program or the government, Simao said.

“This should not happen. The desire to help should not create more problems,” he said.

Church officials could not be contacted for comment.

About 50,000 people are housed at the sprawling Chiaquelane camp, the biggest of more than 120 centers for the estimated 450,000 people displaced by flood waters.

Aid distribution remains a major problem, with many areas still only accessible by air. Reported cases of malaria, cholera and other diseases are reaching new highs.

However, repeated floods that have ravaged Mozambique since early February might finally be about to end, officials said.

“It seems the conditions are going to improve. We are getting to the end of the rainy season,” Simao said.

Silvano Langa, head of the country’s disaster management agency, said water levels in the flooded Limpopo River, swelled by rains in neighboring South Africa and Zimbabwe, were expected to peak Friday at the town of Chokwe, about 125 miles northeast of the capital, Maputo.