Mozambique, an historical calamity

Mozambique, an historical calamity

President Clinton recently praised Mozambique as the fastest growing economy in Africa. The words were barely out of his mouth before the rain of Cyclone Eline began to fall. The savage cruelty which lies behind the terrible pictures of families clinging with their belongings to tree tops is that in the last 10 years, Mozambique had emerged as one of Africa's most striking success stories.

For the last three years, it has had economic growth rates of over 10 percent per annum. It had become the model for countries trying to recover from civil war as it succeeded in putting the ravages of a 16-year civil war behind it. Only last August, the Paris Club of lenders agreed to cancel a large tranche of debt.

Now, these considerable achievements on the part of one of the world's poorest countries are at severe risk of being wiped out.

Given the scale of the catastrophe, now two weeks in the making, the response of the international community has been pitiable. Until recently, there were only a paltry five helicopters rescuing those stranded; that number has now increased to 12 but it is still woefully inadequate. Clare Short, Britain's secretary of state for international development, insisted in the House of Commons on Monday that the difficulty in finding more helicopters is logistical not financial; the ministry of defense says the opposite.

What makes this confusion so depressing is that the urgent need for helicopters is obvious -- and yet not even that is being met.

With appropriate and prompt support now, a package of debt cancellation -- Mozambique is still paying $1.3m a week in interest payments -- and long-term aid, it could overcome the floods.

The threat is that after the dramatic pictures have faded from television screens, the pressure on Ms Short, her counterparts and the international agencies will be off. Mozambique will be left to struggle with unfulfilled promises.

The bigger picture confronting the international community is that climate change is bringing increasingly erratic and violent weather patterns -- and we know that they hit poor countries disproportionately hard.

-- The Guardian, London