Kenyan killer floods claim 21
2006-11-13 12:23
Nairobi - At least 21 people had been killed and 60 000 displaced by massive flooding in northern and coastal Kenya, triggered by three weeks of unusually heavy seasonal rains, said officials on Monday.
As downpours continued, officials warned of further devastation, while delegates meet at a United Nations conference in Nairobi on climate change that many blamed for altering weather patterns and spawning deadly drought-flood cycles.
Abdi Ahmed, the acting disaster response chief at Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), said: "We have floods across the country and, since it is still raining, we fear the situation will deteroriate."
In addition, the Kenyan health ministry on Sunday issued an alert for possible outbreaks of water-borne diseases, notably cholera, in the affected regions.
Two people missing
Officials said that at the weekend, at least six people, including a schoolgirl, were swept away and drowned by raging waters around the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and the northeastern town of Garissa. Two others were missing.
The fatalities brought Kenya's flood death toll to 21 since October 25, after the first damaging effects of the unusually heavy October to December "short rains" season were reported by authorities.
Since then, at least 60 000 Kenyans - 50 000 on the coast and 10 000 in the northeast - had been forced from their homes by flood waters that had washed away crop fields, bridges and roads and destroyed numerous buildings.
Ahmed said: "All these people are directly affected or completely cut off and we cannot access them."
A local official said that on Saturday, the main road linking Mombasa, about 500km southeast of Nairobi, to Tanzania was cut off with four bridges washed away.
'We are looking for water, shelter'
Moffat Kangi, the commissioner of Kwale district, just south of Mombasa, said: "Delivering food to the 50 000 people who are in need of urgent supplies is the main problem.
"We are looking for water, shelter and medicine for the affected people, but in the long run we will be required to assist up to 200 000 people here. Any help we can get will be appreciated."
In the capital, municipal officials said floodwaters had blocked the city's drainage system, causing floods in some residential districts.
But, the recent floods were not limited to Kenya, which was being hit as it hosted 6 000 international delegates to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that ended this week.
Officials said that the onset of rains had compounded problems across the Horn of Africa region already brought by a recent killer drought with water unable to be absorbed by parched soil inundating the worst-affected areas.
In neighbouring Somalia, floods had killed at least 42 and displaced 10 000 people for the past two weeks, compounding the misery affecting millions in the lawless Horn of Africa nation.
- AFP