At least eight people, including three children, were swept away and drowned in southern Somalia early on Wednesday as a river burst its banks following torrential downpours, elders said.
Thousands of people fled their homes for higher ground and, in addition to the confirmed deaths, several dozen people were unaccounted for in villages along the Juba River in Somalia’s Gedo region, they said.
The river, already swollen by heavy rains, overflowed overnight, inundating numerous small villages Gedo’s Garbaharey division, about 350km north-west of Mogadishu, they said.
”The casualty figure is eight people, including three children, dead from villages around Garbaharey,” said Mohamed Hirsi Raghe, an elder in the flood-affected Bardheere district.
The fatalities bring the death toll from floods in the region to 35 over the past two weeks, and residents of the area said they fear it will climb higher.
”There are floods everywhere and heavy rains are still coming,” Raghe said. ”Thousands have escaped to higher ground and dozens are still missing. We can do nothing about this disaster, only pray Allah to safe our people.
”People are losing everything, including their livestock,” he said.
Last week, heavy rains killed at least 17 people in the capital, days after at least 10 people drowned in Gedo region, which was recently hit by a scorching drought that put millions on people on the verge of starvation.
The latest flood deaths come amid heightened tension between Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement and weak government who are girding for battle, raising fears of all-out war that could engulf the Horn of Africa region.
Islamist expansion beyond Mogadishu through most of southern and central Somalia, coupled with concerns for conflict and the lingering effects of a drought, have already forced tens of thousands of Somalis to flee into neighbouring Kenya this year.
Somalia, a nation of about 10-million, has lacked any disaster-response mechanism since the country was plunged into anarchy after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. — Sapa-AFP