Reports from Angola say at least fourteen people have been killed in severe flooding in the coastal province of Benguela.

Around five-thousand people have abandoned their homes and many are reported to have lost all their belongings after heavy rains in the south of the province.

Large areas of farm land have been submerged.

The local authorities have declared the affected area an emergency zone.

A delegation of senior government officials from Luanda went to Benguela yesterday to assess the situation.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service