By DPA
Harare : At least 33 people were killed in flooding caused by a month of heavy rains in Zimbabwe and neighbouring Mozambique, according to various reports Friday.
In Zimbabwe, three people travelling in an ox-drawn cart were swept away by floodwaters in the northern area of the Mashonaland West province, the state-run paper reported.
The deaths bring to 31 the numbers killed in Zimbabwe by flooding in low-lying areas of the north and south provoked by the heaviest rains in December in around a century.
Critical food shortages caused by political mismanagement and drought that have left around four million in need of food aid have been exacerbated as floodwaters swept away crops and livestock.
The situation in Zimbabwe is also having a knock-on effect in flood-prone neighbouring Mozambique.
Two people died in central Sofala province after the Pungue and Buzi rivers, which have their source in Zimbabwe, burst their banks, the district administrator said.
The Save river, which rises in Zimbabwe and flows through Sofala and Inhambane provinces, also was flooded, leaving more than 1,000 people stranded, according to government officials.
Rescue workers in motorboats were trying to reach people who sought refuge in trees and on rooftops.
Impoverished rural dwellers in Mozambique are the worst hit by flooding during the summer rainy season, which killed some 700 people and displaced 500,000 in 2000 and 2001.