1 000s displaced by rain

2005-04-28 21:28

Addis Ababa - Ethiopian authorities on Thursday warned of new deaths and damage as non-stop rains pounded parts of southeastern Ethiopia where devastating weekend floods have left at least 88 people dead and about 60 000 displaced.

The rain, which started early on Thursday, prevented humanitarian assessment teams deployed in the affected Godie region from returning to compile reports, officials said.

"It has been raining since morning and this has complicated the efforts of the assessment teams that was sent to the affected areas," regional disaster prevention chief Abdullahi Mahdi told AFP from the regional capital of Jigiga.

"At the same time, the volume of the river is increasing in some areas and we are afraid that areas such as Mustahin, Kelafo and Ferfier (in Godie) will be submerged by water and this could bring the damage and deaths to people and now," he said.

The appearance of crocodiles is posing a threat to the displaced, with survivors in some parts of the region still clinging to trees in desperation to avoid being eaten.

Relief supplies began arriving in the flood-ravaged region on Tuesday, but access to Somali state's most remote communities, like Mustahil, was still proving difficult and the new rains had complicated the situation.

The flooding, which began on Saturday, followed days of uninterrupted rain in the highlands to the north of the affected area and hit most villages at night, taking sleeping residents by surprise.

Before the rains, the area had been repeatedly hit by drought and the dried up river bed was unable to handle the excess water, leading to flooding along almost its entire length that stretched across the border into Somalia.

- AFP