Horn of Africa floods displace over 2M
Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia reel from El Nino disasters.
HIRAN, SOMALIA - NOVEMBER 15: People wade through a submerged street on a residential area in Beledweyne city of Hiran region on November 15, 2023 as Somalia is experiencing the worst climate-change-related floods in a century, wreaking havoc in many parts of the Horn of Africa country, affecting 1.24 million people and displacing over 456,800 more since the first week of October. Abuukar Mohamed Muhidin / Anadolu (Photo by Abuukar Mohamed Muhidin / ANADOLU / Anadolu via AFP)
Torrential rains and floods have displaced more than two million people across the Horn of Africa and killed nearly 300 people in the region, according to Agence France-Presse, citing figures from the government and the United Nations.
The heavy rainfall, linked to the El Niño weather pattern, has struck just as the region is emerging from the worst drought in 40 years that drove millions into hunger.
"Regions that were struggling to recover from the economic and environmental impacts of prolonged drought are now doubly burdened with flooding," the charity Action Against Hunger said in a statement late Wednesday, on the eve of the start of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.
The Horn of Africa is one of the regions' most vulnerable to climate change — even though the continent's contribution to global carbon emissions is a fraction of the total.
The latest disaster has exacerbated a deep humanitarian crisis in Somalia, one of the poorest countries on the planet that has also been battling a bloody Islamist insurgency for the past decade and a half.
Flooding has cost the lives of more than 100 people, and displaced more than one million, according to a joint statement issued by the UN and Somali officials on Thursday.
An estimated 1.5 million children under the age of five are facing acute malnutrition over the period between August this year and July 2024, the joint UN-Somali statement said.
Floodwaters could swamp more than 1.5 million hectares of farmland in December, the statement warned.
In a move that could help alleviate the situation for some, the Somalia government said it had received 25,000 tons of grain from Russia that would be distributed urgently to flood-affected people, with another 25,000 tons expected later in December.
Cholera outbreak
In neighboring Kenya, the interior ministry said Thursday the death toll from the flood disaster had risen to 136, with more than 460,000 people displaced.
Another 57 people have perished in Ethiopia and more than 600,000 have been displaced, according to the UN's humanitarian response agency OCHA.
In one of the hardest hit areas, the Somali region in eastern Ethiopia, cholera has claimed the lives of at least 23 people, with a total of 772 confirmed cases, Save the Children said Thursday.
"The cholera outbreak in Ethiopia and across the Horn of Africa could spiral out of control if swift action isn't taken by government and donors to provide clean drinking water and sanitation facilities for communities forced out of their homes by floodwaters," it warned.