A climate-related natural disaster leaves Tanzania in mourning. Landslides caused by torrential rains in the north of the country left “47 dead and 85 injured”, according to a still provisional report given on Sunday by the regional commissioner of the affected district.
Heavy rains have been sweeping the town of Katesh, about 300 kilometers north of the capital Dodoma, since Saturday, causing landslides which swept away homes. “Rescue operations are still ongoing and we believe we will recover more bodies, especially from the mud,” Manyara Regional Commissioner Queen Sendiga continued on local media.
Roads blocked by “muddy waters”
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, traveling to Dubai to attend the 28th United Nations climate conference (COP28), presented her “condolences”, claiming to have “ordered the deployment” of relief to help the victims.
Earlier, Hanang district commissioner Janeth Mayanja said many roads were blocked due to “muddy waters which washed away trees and stones”. Images broadcast on state television TBC show many homes underwater and vehicles stuck in thick mud.
The main opposition party, Chadema, also offered its condolences to the families, and urged the authorities to “strengthen early detection systems for calamities” and “issue alerts” to avoid these disasters.
More than a million displaced in Somalia
After experiencing an unprecedented drought in forty years, East Africa has been hit for weeks by torrential rains and floods linked to the El Niño climatic phenomenon, which have displaced more than a million people in Somalia and more than 300 dead in the region. El Niño, typically associated with rising temperatures, droughts in some parts of the world and heavy rains in others, is expected to last through April.