Floods victims throng Malawi camps, supplies needed urgently

More food supplies and tents are urgently needed to cater to 80,000 men, women and children displaced by floods in Malawi, following the influx of hundreds of Mozambicans also affected by floods, Xinhua reported.

District Commissioner for Chikhwawa district, Harry Phiri, told a local radio Saturday that the situation in the camps was pathetic and that the floods victims were starving.

"We urgently need food - flour and other ready-made or easy to prepare food stuff because the floods victims are really starving in the camps. We don't need maize because there is no electricity here and milling would be a problem," said Phiri.

The commissioner also called for supplies of tents, adding that most of the victims were camped in school blocks, a development that has led to classes being dissolved.

He appealed to the United Nation High Commission for Refugees to support the Mozambicans who have thronged the camps at the border districts of Chikhwawa and Nsanje.

The district commissioner's appeal for more supplies came four days after Malawi President, Peter Mutharika, declared a state of disaster and called for humanitarian support.

Hailstorm and floods have killed more than 50 people in Malawi, most of them in the southern districts which lie alongside Shire, the country's biggest river and the only outlet of Lake Malawi.

The toll could go higher as many people were still missing amid rescue operations conducted by the Malawi Defence Force.