|PIC1|The Anglican Church is providing emergency relief after severe flooding claimed 20 lives and displaced over 170,000 people in Niassa, Mozambique.

Eight villages and 200 houses were reportedly destroyed when heavy rains that started last December caused rivers in the area to overflow. The rains have now subsided leaving damage in their wake.

The Diocese of Niassa, under the leadership of Bishop Mark van Koevering, helped with the distribution of mosquito nets, plastic roofing, clean water medicines, and capulanas (wrap cloths).

Bishop van Koevering, who is supported by the Anglican mission agency USPG, reported: "We wanted to show that our church cared. We had planned to help just 200 families, but with hard work and careful budgeting, many more than this have been assisted in the towns of Shire, Tengahe, Chiromo and Taube.

|PIC2|"The worst affected area was Chiromo, where four folk were drowned and given no proper burial because the land flooded."

Among those caught up in the disaster was community priest Padre Albano, who has founded 16 churches in Zambezia in the last two years.

When the water levels rose by 1.5 metres, Albano's house was flooded, despite being 200 metres from the river. The local well was also destroyed when floodwaters contaminated it, then caused it to cave in, leaving villagers without clean water.

Bishop van Koevering reported: "Padre Albano's request is for prayer, for his congregations and the communities of the Shire area of Zambezia, as well as for himself and his family. Please do pray."