MOGADISHU, Nov 23, 2006 (AFP) - Heavy flooding in Somalia killed at least seven people overnight, bringing the death toll to 80 from three weeks of torrential rains, witnesses and aid workers said Thursday. With the emergence of cholera cases, humanitarian groups raced to southern Somalia to avert a possible disaster that would be exacerbated by fears of war between the Islamic fighters and government forces backed by Ethiopian troops.
The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday launched a massive emergency relief operation to the Somalia's Juba, Gedo, Shabelle and Hiraan regions where floods have washed farmlands and roads, disrupted food supplies and cut off villages.
The ICRC airlifted tarpaulins to assist 324,000 people in those areas while the UN's World Food Programme said a large Ilyushin-76 aircraft and two heavy-lift helicopters would airdrop food. The Somali government has warned of an imminent disaster if aid agencies do not rapidly deliver food and other essential items to the most remote regions, most of which are inaccessible.
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. In addition to the conflict, hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by years of droughts, famine, floods and absence of permanent humanitarian operations. In neighbouring Kenya, a man drowned in Rift Valley's Keiyo region, a provincial commissioner said, bringing the death toll to 38 people killed while around 200,000 others, including 80,000 refugees, require urgent relief supplies.
Southern Ethiopia is still reeling from flash floods in August and September, which left 639 dead and affected over 350,000 people, again chiefly hitting the ethnic Somali region. Aid groups have warned that the situation in the three eastern Africa countries is expected to worsen over the coming weeks as the torrential rain continues. According to the UN, between 1.5 million and 1.8 million people in the three nations have been affected by the flooding, which has altered the way of life for the largely agricultural and pastoral communities.
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