Extreme weather
At least 111 dead after flash floods in the Horn of Africa
In Mogadishu, streets are flooded after heavy rain. photo
© Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP/dpa
Heavy rains have led to widespread flooding in the Horn of Africa: at least 111 people have been killed and more than 770,000 displaced. And: Further heavy rain is forecast.
In northern Kenya and the capital Nairobi, heavy rains since October have led to widespread flooding in northern Kenya and the capital Nairobi, killing an estimated 46 people and displacing 36,000 others. In the Somali regional capital Beledweyne, in the center of the country, around 90 percent of the residents lost their homes due to floods. In total, at least 32 people were killed and almost half a million people were displaced in Somalia, most of them in the southwestern Bay Region.
In neighboring Ethiopia, at least 33 people, including eight children, were killed by floods and landslides in the Gambella, Afar and Somali regions, according to Save the Children.
The floods are the latest in a series of extreme weather events in the Horn of Africa. At the same time, the region is experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades. Before the massive rainfall, there had been no rainfall for several consecutive periods. According to the UN, millions of people in the Horn of Africa are at risk of hunger. The crisis is also triggered by conflicts such as the recent power struggle in Sudan, the aftermath of the corona pandemic, the threat from Islamist terrorists and outbreaks of cholera and other diseases.