Thursday, October 26, 2006
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Mogadishu - Torrential rains have killed at least 10 people, displaced hundreds and destroyed property in southern Somalia in the past three days, officials said on Thursday.Flood waters have inundated swathes of land in Beledhawo district of the Gedo region, which was recently hit by a scorching drought that put millions on people on the verge of starvation, they said.
"At least 10 people have been killed in the last (three) days we had heavy rains and some of the dead are children," Beledhawo district commissioner Ahmed Mohamed Burkus has said.
"It is really devastating. The floods swept houses and forced hundreds of residents to leave their homes," Burkus said, appealing for humanitarian help in the region that is prone to drought and famine.
The commissioner's figure could not be independently confirmed since most humanitarian groups have already pulled out of the lawless country.
The devastation came amid heightened tension between increasingly powerful Somali Islamists and the fragile government over territorial control. Fighting has forced thousands to flee into neighbouring Kenya from the southern region.
Somalia, a nation of about 10 million, has lacked any disaster response mechanism since the country plunged into bloodletting after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Source: AFP, Oct. 26, 2006