Reports indicate that 50 persons have lost their lives during a flash flood in Somalia, with about seven hundred thousand displaced from their homes. Authorities say that heavy rainfall experienced in the region has worsened the plight of the people.
The rainfall, said to have caused heavy flooding bedeviling the Horn of Africa region, is connected to the El Nino weather situation, destroying several lives, and government infrastructures, and resulting in large-scale cases of displaced persons.
Addressing the press, Somali Disaster Management Agency director Mohamud Moalim Abdullahi said that the unexpected rainfall between the 21st and the 24th of November may have heightened the impact of the flood.
The UN Humanitarian Agency OCHA revealed on Saturday that the number of persons affected by the flood in Somalia has nearly doubled in a week, adding that about 1.7 million persons were victims of the flood disaster. Distribution of relief materials is said to have been hindered by the damage the flood has done to the state’s infrastructure.
Also, on Thursday, the British Charity Save Our Children reported that a hundred people, including sixteen children, had lost their lives, with more than seven hundred thousand people forcefully displaced in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
While calling for urgent solutions, humanitarian officials warned that the situation is only likely to worsen as El Nino is expected to last until at least April 2024.
The region, having just emerged from a devastating drought spanning four decades, is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather changes and the effects of climate change.
