MOGADISHU, Somalia
At least 21 people including
six children have died in Somalia’s flash flooding over the last week,
according to the U.N. humanitarian agency.
Nearly 100,000 people have
been affected by the heavy rains and flash floods that hit the previously
drought-stricken area in the Bardhere district of the Gedo region of southern
Somalia, according to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs.
The flooded region is near
Ethiopia which has been hit by heavy rains that are causing water levels to
rise in the Shabelle and Juba rivers.
Health facilities have been
destroyed by the flash flooding, the Somalia National Disaster Management
Agency said Wednesday.
Communities living near rivers
have been warned they are at risk, the agency’s strategic policy and
partnership advisor Mohamed Moalim told The Associated Press.
Some 250 affected families in
Bardhere district had received food rations that included rice, flour and oil
from the national agency.
Four schools and 200 latrines
were destroyed by the flash floods, disrupting learning for some 3,000
children, the U.N.’s humanitarian agency said.
More than 1,000 hectares of
farmland have been swamped, the U.N. report said.
Ongoing floods in northern
Somalia have also left a trail of destruction.
The flash floods have hit as
the country was going through five seasons of severe drought that left 8.25
million people in need of humanitarian aid and displaced more than 1.4 million
people, according to the U.N. agency.
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