Horn of Africa floods: At least 111 dead, 700,000 displaced

At least 111 people have died and another 700,000 have been forced to leave their homes due to flooding caused by torrential rains in recent weeks in Horn of Africa.

As announced on Thursday (16/11) by the non-governmental organization Save the Children 16 children are among the victims.

The El Niño phenomenon increased the rainfall of the rainy season in the region, affecting mainly Somalia, but also Ethiopia and Kenya.

“Incessant rainfall in northern Kenyan counties and the capital Nairobi has caused widespread flooding, displacing an estimated 36,000 people and claiming 46 lives since the start of the rainy season, which has not even closed a month,” the British said in a statement. NGO, adding that another 32 lives were lost in Somalia and 33 in Ethiopia.

Save the Children, as reported by the Athens News Agency citing AFP, called on the international community to help address “mass displacements” in the three states.

The Horn of Africa is one of the regions of the world most vulnerable to climate change and is repeatedly hit by extreme weather events, the frequency and intensity of which are worsening.

As of late 2020, Somalia, as well as parts of Ethiopia and Kenya, has been hit by the region’s worst drought in 40 years.

El Nino, a phenomenon generally associated with rising temperatures, droughts in some parts of the world and heavy rains in others, is expected to continue until at least April, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently warned.

This meteorological phenomenon has repeatedly caused widespread destruction in eastern Africa.

From October 1997 to January 1998, massive floods caused by torrential rains claimed the lives of over 6,000 people in five countries in the region.

At the end of 2019, at least 265 people died and tens of thousands more were displaced during two months of incessant rains in countries in the region (Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda).

(file photo)