Devastating Flooding in Somalia and Kenya
At least 44 people are dead and hundreds of thousands displaced in Somalia and Kenya after widespread flooding triggered by heavy rains. The government of Somalia declared a state of emergency after at least 29 people have died there, and aid workers are unable to reach 2,400 more in the southern town of Luuq, where people are trapped in their homes by floodwaters. The floods, the worst ones in decades, come after years of a devastating drought in the region that has caused thousands of deaths. In September, weather forecasters predicted El Nino would help create intense flooding during the country’s wet season. "The impact of the flooding is much worse because the soil is so damaged from an unprecedented recent drought,” Nazanine Moshiri, a climate analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Reuters. “Years of conflict and al Shabaab militia's presence also makes building flood defences and resilience more complex and costly.”
(Reuters, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, AP)
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