Tsunami claimed 132 in Somalia
2004-12-30 14:34
Nairobi - The toll of people killed in Somalia when a deadly tsunami wave struck the country's Indian Ocean coast at the weekend has climbed to 132, Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said on Thursday in Nairobi.
Gedi said: "Some 132 people were killed and about 150 others injured,"
Gedi said: "There are also more than 50 000 people displaced by the killer wave (and) the most affected region is in the regional administration of Puntland, but the damage was felt all along southern part of Somalia."
Puntland lies in the northeastern part of Somalia, a nation of 10 million people.
On Wednesday, the United Nations said at least 114 people had died and up to 50 000 people were in urgent need of relief assistance in the Horn of Africa nation, whose coastline was battered by walls of water on Sunday.
Inter-agency aerial assessment
"Food, medicine, water and shelter are urgently needed for the displaced people," added Gedi in an interview, adding that urgent aid was needed in Barri, Mudug, Lower Shabelle, Middle Shabelle and Mogadishu regions, all lying along the country's coastline.
The quake-powered waves its epicentre was off the Indonesian island of Sumatra have killed more than 81 000 people across the Indian Ocean since Sunday, spreading carnage across the shorelines of several Asian nations where diseases threaten to wipe out weakened survivors.
According to the Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, a UN appeal will be made for Somalia after an inter-agency aerial assessment over the affected regions takes place on Thursday.
In the northeastern Hafun Island, the threat of diseases has started to hit weakened survivors, whose possessions were ruined by the killer waves.
Disaster-response mechanism
World Food Programme spokesperson said "They are now without shelter, water, food and medicine. Cases of diarrhoea and other diseases are already being reported."
She said: "Most of the houses in the town have been destroyed. Personal possessions lay scattered around the town.
"Boats are beached in the middle of the town. Even money is strewn on the ground."
The Horn of Africa nation lacks an affective disaster-response mechanism, having been ravaged by anarchy since 1991 when dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled, plunging the whole nation into lawlessness.
- AFP