Malawi floods death toll rises to 176

The death toll from floods in Malawi has risen to 176 and more than 200,000 people have been made homeless.

In this photo taken Thursday, Jan, 15, 2015, a family that survived flood waters wait outside they home for relief teams in the southern district of Chikwawa, near Blantyre, Malawi.

The death toll from floods ravaging Malawi has risen to 176 with many more missing and 200,000 homeless, Vice President Saulos Chilima says.

"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 on Friday.

"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.

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 Program said it would airlift stocks to flooded areas.

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.

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.