'Hundreds dead' off Somalia

2004-12-27 16:13

Nairobi - Hundreds of fishermen and coastal dwellers were missing and feared dead in Somalia on Monday after the effects of Sunday's quake off Indonesia started to become more clear.

Somali presidential spokesperson Yusuf Mohammed Ismail said: "We have been badly hit by the waves.

"I have reports that entire coastal communities have been swept away, but we do not have any more details."

Ismail, who is based in neighbouring Kenya, said he had been in contact with local leaders on the Somali coast throughout Monday.

"It seems hundreds of fishermen who went out to sea are missing," he said.

Unconfirmed reports from humanitarian agencies speak of 30 dead in the Puntland region and seven dead on the coast just north of the capital, Mogadishu.

Ismail said fishing boats, nets and fish refrigerators along the coast had been completely damaged.

"As our economy is built largely around fishing and livestock, this is an enormous blow," he said, urging the international community to come to the aid of Somalia.

Three dead on Seychelles?

Another country hit by the sea surges produced by the Asia quake on Sunday was the island nation of Seychelles, where fishing boats, coastal roads and houses were damaged.

The head of the country's Red Cross society, Cristol Chetti, said waves kept coming in during Sunday evening and the early part of Monday, and that a wave at least two metres above normal levels hit at 02:00.

Chetti said he had reports, although unconfirmed, that three people had died and at least seven had gone missing after the series of waves hit the islands.

Several telephone and power lines had been cut and a hospital had been damaged.

In Kenya, one person died when he attempted to go swimming late on Sunday night south of the town of Malindi. Another was injured when he tried to rescue his boat.

In the coastal resort of Mombasa further south, 10 000 tourists were evacuated from beach hotels, but no casualties were reported. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA