MANHICA, Mozambique: Erica Raimundo Mimbir delivered her first baby on a school desk, the only dry place she found after days marooned in her flooded home in southern Mozambique.
“I wanted to die because of the labor pains and the conditions,” the 17-year-old said in a village in the province of Maputo.
Evacuated by boat the next day, Mimbir took shelter with relatives, among some 650,000 Mozambicans the United Nations says have been affected by torrential rains since December.
“I don’t think I’ll return home because I’ve never experienced anything like this,” Mimbir said, recounting that the high waters meant she could not sleep lying down but leaning against a wall.
“It was very painful,” she said, holding her baby, Rosita, who was born on January 19 premature and weighing 1.5 kilograms.
