Angola says cholera infects three, sees more cases

LUANDA (Reuters) - Three people have been infected with cholera following floods caused by weeks of heavy rain in southern Angola with more cases likely, the governor of a province on the border with Namibia said on Friday.

The floods have left more than 33,000 people homeless and destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland.

"We know that because of the still waters we could register more cases in the province but we are on alert and ready," Antonio Didalewa, governor of Cunene, was quoted as saying in state-owned newspaper Jornal de Angola.

The three cases were detected in the city of Ondjiva, the capital of Cunene. The landlocked province is one of Angola's poorest regions where the majority of the population rely on subsistence farming.

A number of roads have been cut off by the floods, leaving hundreds of people stranded and without food. The government has sent helicopters to provide vital aid to the population, but Didalewa said more had to be done.

"We only have three helicopters that supply some localities with food during the day. We would like that number to be increased although we are thankful to those institutions that are helping to resolve the problem of Cunene," he said.

(Reporting by Henrique Almeida; Editing by Serena Chaudhry and Katie Nguyen)