Limpopo National Park Shut for Over a Month as Flood Damage Blocks All Access
One of Mozambique's most important conservation areas remains completely closed to visitors, with no reopening date confirmed yet. Limpopo National Park, situated in the southern province of Gaza, has been inaccessible to tourists for more than a month following devastating floods that struck much of central and southern Mozambique during January. The park's road network — the only means of moving through the reserve — has been severed in multiple places, making circulation impossible for both visitors and vehicles.
Park administrator Francisco Pariela confirmed the severity of the situation while briefing journalists on ongoing efforts to restore access. He described the internal road system as being in critical condition, with cuts across several sections that have effectively sealed the park off from the outside world [[1]](https://allafrica.com/stories/202602250032.html). The closure applies to all tourist traffic, including from the neighbouring Kruger National Park in South Africa, which shares a border with Limpopo National Park and normally serves as a key access point for cross-border safari visitors.
"Right now, we are completely closed to tourist traffic, both on the Kruger side and on our side, but we are already exploring the possibility of opening the border," Pariela said [[2]](https://clubofmozambique.com/news/mozambique-tourism-halted-in-limpopo-national-park/). He added that basic road clearing work has begun to allow at least minimal movement of people and goods within the park, but a full reopening for tourism is still some way off.
The flooding that caused this damage was catastrophic in scale. The Peace Parks Foundation, which supports conservation efforts in the region, has assessed the impact across the Limpopo, Shingwedzi and Olifants river systems and concluded that the destruction is more severe than the devastating floods of 2000, which were previously considered the worst in the region's modern history [[3]](https://www.peaceparks.org/flood-emergency-mozambique/). Across Gaza province alone, more than 300,000 people were displaced by the rising waters, with approximately 40 per cent of the province submerged at the height of the crisis [[4]](https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/floods-mozambique-displace-300000-people-province-governor-129357204) [[5]](https://www.dailysabah.com/world/africa/floods-displace-more-than-300000-in-mozambiques-gaza-province). The human toll has been significant — at least 22 people lost their lives and 45 were injured, while more than 700,000 people across the affected provinces were impacted in some way.
The agricultural damage has been staggering. More than 450,000 hectares of farmland were destroyed and roughly 430,000 livestock perished across Gaza, Maputo and parts of Sofala province. Gaza is one of Mozambique's agricultural heartlands, and the loss of crops and food storage barns has compounded the humanitarian challenge facing the region [[6]](https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/2/5/we-have-to-rebuild-mozambique-flood-victims-persevere-in-face-of-loss).
Within the park itself, the situation extends beyond damaged roads. Pariela revealed that at least 1,300 families living in three communities inside the park's boundaries — Mavodze, Machampane and Chimangue — were cut off by the floodwaters, with the latter two described as the most critical because reaching them requires crossing the Shingwedzi River [[7]](https://clubofmozambique.com/news/mozambique-over-1300-families-cut-off-by-floods-in-limpopo-national-park/). These communities depend on the park's road infrastructure for their daily survival, not just for tourism-related activity.
Despite the destruction, Limpopo National Park remains home to significant wildlife populations. The most recent census recorded 792 elephants, 5,883 buffalo, 103 giraffes, 667 hippos and 1,998 impalas within its boundaries. How these animal populations have fared during the flooding is not yet fully known, but the park's ecological value remains substantial.
Cooperation with Kruger National Park is underway to create the conditions needed for a phased reopening. Kruger itself was forced to close in mid-January due to the same flooding event, with hundreds of staff and tourists evacuated from flooded sections of the reserve [[8]](https://www.asisonline.org/security-management-magazine/latest-news/today-in-security/2026/january/south-africa-mozambique-zimbabwe-flooding-natural-disaster/). The interdependence of these two parks — which together form part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park — means that recovery on one side of the border is closely linked to progress on the other.
For travel professionals across sub-Saharan Africa, the message is clear. Limpopo National Park should be treated as temporarily unavailable for client itineraries until official confirmation of reopening is received. Agents packaging cross-border safari experiences between South Africa and Mozambique through the Kruger-Limpopo corridor need to monitor developments closely and have alternative routing plans ready. Northern Mozambique remains comparatively unaffected and continues to offer stable beach and marine tourism options for clients seeking Mozambican experiences while the south recovers.
