Heavy rain and flooding are causing major damage in East Africa
Heavy rains and flooding have killed dozens of people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others across East Africa in recent weeks. Governments and the United Nations have said sounderscoring the increasing climate risks in a politically and economically tumultuous region.
At least 179 people have been killed in countries including Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, according to the UN and government agencies, and some regional authorities believe the figures are likely higher.
The torrential rains, which have devastated other countries including Burundi, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda, have affected more than three million people in a region already reeling from the impact of the crisis. worst drought in forty years.
Since 2020, drought conditions have been exacerbated by climate changehave decimated crops and livestock, leaving behind millions of people hungry and malnourishedAnd hundreds of children dead.
The United Nations attributed the heavier than usual rainfall to two climatic events: the The El Niño phenomenonwhich originates in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and whose conditions release additional heat into the atmosphere, and a similar phenomenon known as the Dipole in the Indian Ocean.
According to aid groups, the floods have damaged houses, bridges and schools. They have warned of an increase in disease outbreaks, including cholera and malaria.
In Somalia, where floods have affected 1.7 million people, the government declared a state of emergency in October. The UN said the country faced “floods that occur once in a century.” Most of those affected live in the southern part of the country, where heavy rains have caused the two main rivers to burst their banks, flooding homes and farms.
According to Farhan Jimale, the government spokesman, the floods have so far killed at least 96 people in the country, including children.
“We were sleeping when the water poured into our house,” Faiza Ahmed Farah, a mother of five in Somalia’s southwestern town of Hudur, said in a telephone interview. “The floods took everything away. We could only save the children.”
With bridges broken and the road network largely impassable, authorities are concerned they may not be able to quickly rescue displaced people or provide food aid.
The heavy rains have occurred in Kenya more than 60 people killedAccording to the UN, thousands of people have also been displaced in towns and cities in the west and northeast, while entire neighborhoods have been flooded in the coastal region of Mombasa this month. This is reported by the Kenyan Red Cross.
The rains have ravaged the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya, which is home to about 300,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia. In Hagadera, one of the camps in the complex, cases of diarrhea have doubled in just two weeks, the International Rescue Committee said in an emailed statement.
Thousands of people in another Dadaab camp have had to leave their makeshift homes and move to schools. This is reported by Doctors Without Borders. With limited supplies, aid agencies are concerned about outbreaks of water-borne diseases and malnutrition in the camp.
Similar devastation has occurred in neighboring countries, including Ethiopia, where torrential rains have submerged large areas of land in various areas underwatersaid the UN
Thousands of homes have been flooded across Sudan in recent weeks, as millions of people have fled civil war lasting seven months. Rising waters have displaced thousands more people in parts of the world Southern Sudana landlocked country already burdened by years of violence and malnutrition.
For now, governments are scrambling to find money to reach people in need, including in Kenya, where disputes over the allocation of funds to flood victims have sparked a nationwide debate. And the UN and other aid agencies have said funding is needed to address such growing humanitarian needs has decreased in parts of the region.
Hussein Mohammed contributed reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia.