Tidal waves that hit Africa’s east coast, unleashed by a massive earthquake in southern Asia, killed at least 111 people – most of them in Somalia, officials said on Tuesday.
At least 100 Somalis died and an unknown number of fishermen went missing when the tidal waves hit Somalia’s 1 000-kilometre-long coastline stretching from Brava to Rasaseyr, Somalia’s newly elected Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi told journalists Tuesday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
The tidal waves hit East Africa’s shores on Sunday, triggered by a magnitude-9 undersea quake centered off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, about 4 500 kilometres across the Indian Ocean. Tens of thousands of people were killed in Asia.
In Tanzania, 10 people were killed, most of them while swimming off Dar es Salaam. Their bodies were recovered Monday, said Alfred Tibaigana, regional police commander for Dar es Salaam, the country’s commercial capital. He said others in a capsized boat were feared dead as well.
On the island of Seychelles, two fishermen were missing and four Seychellois were hospitalised, said Alain Payette, a top official in President James Michel’s office.
In Kenya, one person died in Malindi, about 420 kilometres southeast of the capital, Nairobi, and 50 fishing boats were destroyed, police spokesperson Jaspher Ombati said on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, a team from the UN children’s agency left Bossaso, about 1 120 kilometres northeast of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, to assess the situation in northeastern Somalia, said Siddharth Chatterjee, a senior programme officer with Unicef in Nairobi.
”We are ready to provide assistance to 2 500 to 3 000
households,” she said.
Gedi said he will form a disaster management committee composed of Somali lawmakers and representatives of UN agencies to take charge of relief efforts. He said Somalis in the country, especially businessmen, had provided humanitarian aid to people made homeless by the flooding.
More than 150 people were injured and an unknown number were displaced, said Gedi, who was sworn in last Thursday.
Gedi was speaking in Nairobi, the temporary home of Somalia’s transitional government and parliament because Somalia’s capital is considered too dangerous. His figures could not be independently confirmed.
On Tuesday, Ali Abdi Awaare, environment minister of the semi-autonomous northeastern region of Puntland, said the official death toll for his region was 110, up from more than 50 a day earlier.
A presidential spokesperson, Yusuf Ismail, had said Monday that hundreds were killed and entire villages swept away.
Gedi did not explain the discrepancy. ”We are communicating with all the parties on the ground,” he said, without elaborating.
Puntland has had a fledgling government for more than six years but central and southern Somalia has not had an effective government for 13 years because of war between rival clan-based militias. – Sapa-AP