Floods leave 7 000 homeless
2005-08-23 20:40
Addis Ababa - At least 7 000 people have been left homeless by raging flood waters in Ethiopia after heavy rain caused rivers to burst their banks in the Horn of Africa's Oromia state, said reports on Monday.
The state-run Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) said at least one person had been swept away and killed by the water along with 23 livestock on Monday as the Awash and Meki rivers spilled over an 814-hectare swath of Oromia farmland.
ENA, citing a regional official, said about 3 400 of those displaced were stranded in the Gara Leman locality, 225km south of Addis Ababa, where authorities had managed to rescue 455 people.
The reports said Oromia administrator Jibril Mohammed had appealed to the capital for assistance as rescue efforts had been hampered by continued rain in the upriver highlands.
In April, flash floods caused by similar heavy rains killed about 170 people and left more than 260 000 others homeless in southeastern Ethiopia.