Floods and heavy rains which swept through southern Africa have left about 70,000 people in Malawi homeless and destroyed farming communities along the Shire River valley, the country's main cotton belt. Floods killed four people in the area.

Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have also been hit by floods that have killed dozens and ruined lives. Some three thousand Mozambicans fled floods in their own country seeking refuge in Malawi.

Some walked more than 200 km (125 miles). Others came by water. The risks are high.

"These Mozambicans are coming in dug-out canoes from the Mozambican side of the Shire River and our reports indicate that crocodiles are just swimming all over attacking people," Lillian Ngoma, Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs, told Reuters.

Floods have also heightened fears of diseases such as cholera, which has killed eight people. The southern town of Nsanje has been hit hard. Officials are struggling to provide shelter and food, and evacuations have been slow.

More than 6,000 families have been moved from Nsanje. Thousands more are feared stranded along the swelling Shire, Malawi's longest river, said officials.

"It has been raining non-stop the last three weeks and the result has been a total number of 5,393 farming families have lost houses and fields of crops such as rice, maize and cotton in Nsanje alone," said Toby Solomoni, a district commissioner.

Attempts to keep meagre belongings may have cost lives.

"I am waiting for my husband. He was not there when they came to evacuate us because he had gone to fetch his goats which were swept away by the rains," said Agness, a mother of six.

Patrick Maya, an official with local NGO Mother Care Foundation, fears many may still be helpless.