Low-lying Mozambique, which suffered devastating floods in 2000 and 2001 that claimed some 1,000 lives, has been worst hit in the region, with its death toll standing at 15.

Heavy rain has been falling in two central provinces in Mozambique, leaving hundreds of families homeless and more than 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of crops destroyed.

"This is the time of year for flooding," said regional World Food Programme spokesman Mike Huggins. "But as long as the levels stay at their current place we are well prepared," he added.

The deadly rains in the former Portuguese colony follow a lengthy drought that left nearly one million people, mostly in the south of the country, in need of food aid.

In neighbouring South Africa, a woman drowned Wednesday when her shack and 10 other dwellings were washed away by a flooded river in Diepsloot, an informal settlement in Johannesburg.

Her two-day-old baby girl, 11-year-old son and their father were in the shack when it was washed away but were saved by emergency officials.

A second person died in South Africa when his car was swept off a flooded bridge in Secunda, about 150 kilometres southeast of Johannesburg.

In Malawi, floods displaced some 40,000 people, destroying the livelihoods of about 8,000 farming families.

"Floods have rendered 40,000 people homeless... crops and livestock have also been washed away in Chikwawa district alone," district commissioner Harrison Lende said.

The districts affected by the flooding are also among the worst-hit by famine. Up to five million out of Malawi's population of 12 million face hunger after the worst drought in over a decade cut production of maize, the staple food, according to aid agencies and the government.

Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika in October declared the food crisis a national disaster.

Heavy rainstorms in Zambia caused major power blackouts, and several families were left homeless in squatter camps in the capital Lusaka when their shacks were washed away.

In Zimbabwe, weather officials issued a flood warning.

"Heavy falls of rain are expected in most places across the country. There is potential for flooding, especially in low-lying areas," Zimbabwe's director for meteorological services, Amos Makarau, said in a newspaper report Thursday.

The UN food agency said the situation was under control for now.

"What would tip it over the edge would be a sustained heavy inundation of rain for which we would need to look at increasing our humanitarian response, but at this stage we have no reason to believe that that's the way it's going to go," Huggins told AFP.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.