While helicopters and boats fan out across Malawi's devastated floodlands to search for the living, families and friends of the missing have begun the grim task of digging for the dead.

Armed only with hoes, six young men on Saturday combed the banks of a new watercourse created by flash floods through Chilobwe, a shantytown just five kilometres (three miles) from the commercial capital Blantyre.

Digging at heaps of sand and debris, they were hoping to find the bodies of three people who were swept away five days earlier.

"We have not lost hope. We hope to find the bodies to give our friends a dignified funeral," Rodney Chikoja, one of the volunteers, told AFP.

Among those missing is a medical student who was set to graduate this year and had returned home for a weekend to visit his parents, who survived the disaster.

A total of 176 people have been confirmed dead in the floods, with 153 missing and 200,000 homeless, according to official figures.

Torrential rains have wreaked havoc across half the impoverished southern African country's 28 districts, washing away homes, crops and livestock and disrupting power supplies.

Police said four bodies had already been found along the stream through Chilobwe, buried in sand.

"One body was found five kilometres downstream. So you can see how powerful the flood was," said a constable, who refused to give her name, but said she helped organise the search effort.

Survivor Felistus Selemani said it was a "miracle our family of five is still alive today and our house intact".

Selemani said it was because their three-bedroomed home was built with bricks and cement that it survived destruction.

"There was fast running water all over our house. It was a terrifying moment and luckily we all survived after what was a nightmare," Selemani said.

Although it was not raining in Blantyre on Saturday, weather experts said the "risks of flooding are still very high", mainly in the southern districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje, the worst affected areas.

Across the border in Mozambique, which shares a river system with Malawi, floods have killed at least 21 people and displaced tens of thousands.

"We can account for 21 victims in Zambezia province since the red alert was declared on Monday," Rita Almeida of the National Disaster Management Institute told AFP.

Around 24,000 people were being assisted in 30 centers in the Niassa and Zambezia provinces, which border Malawi, she said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said weeks of heavy rains had left tens of thousands of families homeless and in desperate need of support across Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

"Homes have been washed away. Crops have been destroyed. People have lost everything. While many are seeking shelter in schools and churches, we are hearing of families also living under trees," said Michael Charles, the acting regional representative.

"We need to scale up rapid deployment of resources to ensure these people receive the support they so desperately need."

The IFRC said an estimated 90,000 people had been displaced in Mozambique, and at least 6,000 in Zimbabwe.

Malawi floods death toll rises to 176, 200,000 homeless
Blantyre, Malawi (AFP) Jan 16, 2015 - The death toll from floods ravaging Malawi has risen to 176 with many more missing and 200,000 homeless, Vice President Saulos Chilima said Friday, as more heavy rain was predicted.

"The death toll is now 176 and over 200,000 have been displaced after their houses were destroyed by the floods," Chilima told a news conference. "At least 153 people are missing."

Speaking after flying in a military helicopter over the worst affected Lower Shire districts of Nsanje and Chikwawa in the south, he said the country faced "a big challenge".

Earlier, disaster officials warned that more heavy rain was expected.

"The government is urging people living in flood-prone districts to urgently relocate to upland areas to avoid losing more lives," said Paul Chiunguzeni, principal secretary for Disaster Management Affairs.

The floods, which have wreaked havoc on half the the country's 28 districts, have disrupted power supplies, plunging some areas into darkness.

Chirunguzeni said about 1,180 flood victims stranded on patches of high ground had been evacuated since rescue missions with military helicopters and boats were launched Thursday.

At his news conference, Chilima noted one piece of good news -- a woman was rescued Friday after giving birth while trapped by floodwaters.

"Both mother and the baby are fine," he said.

In a statement Friday, African Union chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the organisation would give the "highest priority to providing modest humanitarian assistance" to Malawi "as soon as possible".

The World Food Programme said it would airlift stocks to flooded areas.

"Ready-to-eat food will be prioritised for the most vulnerable people, particularly children, who have been displaced from their homes and have no access to food or cooking facilities," the WFP said.

Five major roads in the south have been closed after bridges were washed away, including some on the road to the prime tourist destination of Mangochi on the shores of Lake Malawi.

This made an access to the hardest-hit areas "extremely difficult", the WFP said.

Hein Zeelie of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the central and northern parts of the country were the agency's next concern "as we are expecting heavy rains for those areas for the next week".

"A lot of preparation activities have been taking place for the rainy season, but no matter how well prepared one could have been, the extreme amount of rainfall would have led to this situation."

The country's sole electricity provider Escom lost 35 percent of its power after shutting down two of its five power stations located on Shire River after they were damaged by floodwaters.

The government has also warned of the impact the floods will have on health services, fearing the spread of water-borne diseases.

"The health care system will be disrupted as people will not get services and some might have lost their drugs such as ARVs. Children will not be vaccinated," said Malawi's health ministry spokesman Henry Chimbali.

"Sanitation will be compromised now with waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid likely to occur."

President Peter Mutharika has called the floods a "national tragedy that urgently needs both local and international response".

Malawi shares a river system with neighbouring Mozambique, where some 52,000 people have been affected by floods, a source from that country's National Disasters Management Institute told AFP.

Local reports have reported 24 deaths, but Mozambican authorities have yet to confirm the figure.

Mozambique's weather service expects heavy rain in the south of the country until early Saturday, as the pressure eases in the central and northern areas.