CHIBOTO, Mozambique (CWNews.com) - A French priest in Mozambique traveled two weeks through the flood-ravaged country, at times clinging to treetops to avoid floodwaters, to reach an aid distribution center to find food for his starving people.

    Father Jean Pierre Le Scour, 57, said he lost his passport and saved five people from drowning as he sought food to feed the 10,000 people in the town of Mabalan. "They have put their trust in me," Le Scour told Reuters news agency on Wednesday. "Some may be dead, but I will try to do my best."

    "I knew they were sick, that they had no medicine and that outbreaks of cholera had begun," he said. "And because I had a car, I was their last chance."

    The east African nation has been devastated since tremendous rains began in January, washing away crops that would have sustained the subsistence farmers in the countryside. When the waters rose again at the end of January, thousands of people fled to Mabalan and surrounding areas for safety. Meanwhile, floods destroyed Mabalan's vital rain link to Maputo, which the town depended on for food delivery.

    Very little international aid had trickled into Mozambique before early March as European and American governments began sending food shipments and aircraft to search for stranded people. Father Le Scour left for Mabalan on Wednesday in a French transport, with a promise from the World Food Program to send food on Thursday.