Mozambique Floods Swamp Gaza Province, Forcing Mass Displacement and Raising Disease Fears

In Xai-Xai, the provincial capital of Gaza in southern Mozambique, brown water laps at doorways and washes through the ruins of mud-brick homes. Families sleep on the floors of crowded schools and churches, their livestock tethered nearby on patches of higher ground. What was once a football field is a shallow lake, and reptiles from the swollen Limpopo River have been sighted in newly submerged neighborhoods.

Worst flooding in decades

For weeks from late December into January, relentless rain has turned large parts of central and southern Mozambique into an archipelago of stranded towns and makeshift camps. Government figures and United Nations agencies say hundreds of thousands of people have been uprooted in what humanitarian officials describe as the country’s worst flooding in decades.

National disaster authorities report that between 600,000 and 700,000 people have been affected across the country since the rains began on Dec. 21. At least 124 deaths had been confirmed by Jan. 22, with later tallies suggesting the national toll rose to around 150 by the end of the month. More than 300,000 people have been forced from their homes, including about 327,000 in Gaza Province alone.

Gaza’s governor, Margarida Mapandzene Chongo, said roughly 40% of the province is under water and that displaced residents are being housed in dozens of temporary shelters, including schools and churches.

The flooding has hit hardest in Gaza, Maputo Province, Maputo City, and Sofala, stretching local authorities and aid agencies as they race to move people out of danger and prevent outbreaks of disease. On Jan. 16, the government’s disaster management agency, the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction, declared a nationwide red alert, its highest level of emergency.

Rivers rise, dam gates open

The disaster follows weeks of extreme rainfall over Mozambique and upstream in South Africa and Zimbabwe—conditions linked to a strong La Niña pattern and a warming atmosphere that can hold more moisture. Unlike recent catastrophes driven by cyclones, this emergency has built from repeated rainstorms that saturated soils and river basins over time.

Rising waters have turned the Limpopo River into the epicenter of the crisis.

In Gaza Province, managers of the Massingir Dam opened all 14 floodgates for the first time in nearly 50 years to release surging inflows from upstream. Save the Children said the move—unprecedented in recent memory—sent vast volumes of water downstream, inundating communities in districts such as Chókwè and Guijá.

“The crocodiles that are in the Limpopo River … are able to get into urban or populated areas now submerged,” said Paola Emerson, the head of the U.N. humanitarian office in Mozambique, speaking from Xai-Xai. She added that about 90% of Mozambicans live in adobe houses that can collapse after sustained rainfall, leaving families with little to return to once waters recede.

Infrastructure, schools and farms damaged

The full scale of damage is still being counted, but early assessments are severe. Between Jan. 10 and 22, national authorities recorded nearly 5,000 homes destroyed, more than 11,500 partially destroyed, and over 80,000 flooded.

Transport links critical to the economy have also been hit: about 2,957 kilometers of roads and at least seven bridges were reported damaged, including multiple stretches of the EN1, Mozambique’s main north-south highway.

Rail traffic on key routes has been disrupted and some lines suspended, affecting the movement of coal, agricultural products and consumer goods. Health officials say 169 health facilities and more than 320 schools have been affected, interrupting classes for over 135,000 students and limiting access to medical care.

The floods have swept across fields and grazing land at a pivotal point in the agricultural calendar. Government data indicate more than 166,000 hectares of farmland have been affected, with roughly 75,000 hectares already lost. Tens of thousands of cattle, goats and other livestock have died.

That damage comes just months after severe drought in parts of the country, leaving many rural families with little ability to absorb another shock. The World Food Programme warned that back-to-back disasters will deepen food insecurity, describing the flooding as the country’s worst in decades.

Children at risk as disease fears grow

Children are at particular risk. UNICEF estimates nearly 600,000 people have been affected in Gaza, Maputo and Sofala alone, more than half of them children, and warns that as many as 800,000 could be impacted nationwide.

Flooding is “turning unsafe water, disease outbreaks and malnutrition into a deadly threat for children,” said Guy Taylor, UNICEF’s chief of communication in Mozambique.

Even before the floods, about 4 in 10 Mozambican children suffered from chronic malnutrition. Now, with latrines submerged, wells contaminated and clinics damaged or unreachable, U.N. agencies say the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases is rising sharply. Health partners say a pre-existing cholera outbreak in some districts has been complicated by displacement and crowded shelters, where families often share space with their animals.

Aid response and political pressure

The humanitarian response is being coordinated through an emergency operations center in Gaza that brings together national authorities and international agencies. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has activated rapid-response mechanisms, and the Southern African Development Community has deployed a regional emergency team to bolster logistics, search and rescue, and public health support.

The World Food Programme says it aims to reach 450,000 people in the worst-affected areas over the next three months and has appealed for tens of millions of dollars to sustain operations. UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Health Organization and international non-governmental organizations are distributing water purification tablets, hygiene kits, temporary shelters and medical supplies, and working to restore maternal health and protection services disrupted by the floods.

The disaster also poses a major test for President Daniel Francisco Chapo, who took office in January 2025 after elections that opposition groups and some observers alleged were marred by fraud and violence. Chapo canceled a planned trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos as the flooding worsened and has visited affected areas, including Manhiça and Marracuene in Maputo Province, where parts of the EN1 have been washed away.

A familiar climate threat

Mozambique has endured repeated climate-related disasters over the past two decades—from the floods of 2000 to Cyclone Idai in 2019 and Cyclone Freddy in 2023. Scientists say global warming is increasing the intensity of extreme rainfall events in southern Africa, especially during La Niña years, and warn such disasters are likely to become more frequent.

As waters begin to recede in some districts, families are picking through mud and debris for salvageable bricks and corrugated metal sheets. Many have nowhere to return to: homes have dissolved, fields are clogged with silt, and animals are gone. Across the crowded classrooms of Xai-Xai and along broken stretches of the EN1, longer-term questions about safety and resilience are already competing with the immediate struggle for food, clean water and a place to sleep.