Torrential rain forced the suspension of aid efforts for 250,000 displaced people in flood-ravaged Mozambique yesterday and delayed a search for 20,000 people, reported stranded in the west of the country.
A senior UN official took off on a reconnaissance flight to verify a report that the 20,000 had been stranded by floods near the town of Mabalane, 350 km northwest of the capital, Maputo.
But heavy rain forced the flight to turn back.
"The plane tried to fly twice but because of the bad weather could not go. We will try again tomorrow morning, but that will depend on the weather," said Ms Rosa Malango of the UN Humanitarian Office.
Aviation authorities at Maputo airport said military commanders had recalled all civilian and military aircraft due to poor visibility as the rains gathered momentum.
Government officials said fresh rains had knocked down telecommunication links in central and southern Mozambique and aid agency officials said they feared rivers that had started receding would rise again.
As people began to wade back to their homes, aid agencies appealed to the displaced to remain in refugee camps rather than risk becoming stranded once again.
"The weather forecast is that rains will continue through to March 12th in Sofala, Inhambane and Maputo provinces and this is bad news for the country," government spokesman Mr Antonio Macheve said.
"So far we have 1.9 million people affected by the disaster. This includes those indirectly affected by the floods, those who have seen their crops and animals destroyed," he said.
Ms Brenda Barton of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said the bad weather had prevented the planned delivery of 90 tonnes of food to people desperately in need of it.
"If the rains continue, we will be faced with a very critical situation in terms of food delivery. This also means that we cannot use roads for bulk delivery," she said.
Ms Barton said WFP had also launched an airlift to Madagascar, where some 600,000 people had been affected by flooding.
"The situation in Madagascar is serious enough to warrant an airlift," she said, adding that flooding had cut key roads and bridges and some affected areas were inaccessible.
Madagascar's government says the floods there have left 10,000 people homeless and more than 12,000 stranded, while an environmental worker said once pristine beaches were covered in driftwood and dead birds and cattle.
In Mozambique, Ms Malango said the UN was concerned about the rains' impact on rivers in the country.
"Our main concern is the impact this would have on the rivers. We pray that we do not go back to a situation where waters rise and rivers burst their banks," she said. Ms Barton said heavy rains in neighbouring Malawi and Zambia were an added worry to the Mozambican floods.
UN officials said contradictory reports had emerged over the report that the 20,000 had been stranded in the west and were marching along a shattered railroad towards Zimbabwe.
In Beira, where US troops, helicopters and equipment landed on Thursday, the task force commander, Maj-Gen Joseph Wehrle, said: "We don't want to get ahead of ourselves . . . There is evidence of people and sheltering. I cannot confirm numbers."
The report about the 20,000 people was triggered on Wednesday by UN officials who said a US C-130 surveillance aircraft had spotted the group marching north towards Zimbabwe.
Officials from the UN World Health Organisation met behind closed doors in Maputo to discuss the threat of cholera and malaria. UN officials said cases for both diseases had reached epidemic levels.