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27-11-2023
MOGADISHU: The number of people killed by floods from heavy rains in Somalia has climbed to 96, state news agency SONNA said on Saturday.
“Somalia’s flood death toll climbs to 96,” SONNA said in a post on X, formerly twitter, adding the figure had been confirmed by Mahamuud Moallim, the head of the country’s disaster management agency.
Like the rest of east and Horn of Africa, Somalia has been battered by relentless heavy rains that begun in October, caused by the El Nino and Indian Ocean Dipole weather phenomena.
Both are climate patterns that impact ocean surface temperatures and cause above-average rainfall.
The flooding has been described as the worst in decades and has displaced about 700,000 people, according to the United Nations.
The intense rains have unleashed widespread flooding across the country, triggering displacement and exacerbating an already existing humanitarian crisis caused by years of insurgency.
In neighboring Kenya the floods have so far killed 76 people, according to the Kenyan Red Cross, and also unleashed widespread displacement, destruction of roads and bridges and left many residents without shelter, drinking and food supplies, according to the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
British charity Save the Children on Thursday said more than 100 people, including 16 children, had died and more than 700,000 forced from their homes in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia due to flash flooding.
The Horn of Africa is one of the region’s most vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events are occurring with increased frequency and intensity.
The region is emerging from the worst drought in four decades after multiple failed rainy seasons that left millions of people in need and devastated crops and livestock.
Humanitarian groups have warned that the situation is only likely to worsen and called for urgent global intervention as El Nino is expected to last until at least April 2024. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
