Saturday, November 16, 2013
Reports from Puntland, a semiautonomous region in North-eastern
Somalia, indicate that the disaster caused by cyclone 03A that hit the
region this week is more devastating than originally thought.
On Thursday, a father, Ahmed Hassan, told the BBC Somali Service that he lost five children and their mother.
“I had six kids in my house, but floods on Monday took them all plus their mother,” said Hassan.
Other media outlets reported that all the five kids that perished were Hassan’s own children together with their mother.
“A
niece survived and I later found the body of one of my sons,” said
Hassan. He added, “I believe that the forceful floods took my family
members away.”
The anguished man said that his family was based at a low-lying area and that he was away at the time the cyclone hit his area.
Hassan stated that his own father lost many animals including camels.
Reports
trickling from the worst hit areas that include Eyl, Bander Bayla,
Gara’ad and Hafun, depict that the zones are still inaccessible. Even
the communication is poor as most antennas were shattered by the strong
winds that bettered the area over 4 days.
The Puntland authority said on Tuesday that known death toll was 143 and projected to go as far up as 300.
Mohamoud Aideed Dirir, Puntland Minister of Planning, the Chairman of Puntland’s newly appointed Emergency Committee, stated:
“Rescue efforts only reached about ten per cent of the affected areas.”
He
added, “the roads are simply cut off, especially a bridge that links
the main cities in Puntland. We need help from Puntland’s friends and
partners.”
More than 50,000 people are assumed to have
been displaced by the cyclone while five thousand are reckoned to be
stranded in flooded areas.
Some of the areas hit by
the cyclone in Puntland are the same that were affected by a Tsunami
that in December 2004 originating from Sumatra Island in Indonesia.
The Tsunami then killed tens of people, damaged villages and devastated the livelihoods of many coastal families.
Typhoon
Haiyan that hit South-east Asia, especially the Philippines and the
Cyclone 03A that affected the northern regions of Somalia may result
from the adverse conditions created by climate change.
Beckie
Malay, a Global Council member of GCAP (Global Call to Action against
Poverty) stated in an email circulated on Monday, “Climate change is
killing my country (Philippines).”
Malay was reportedly
reacting to the devastating Typhoon Haiyan, destroying homes and
communities, killing thousands of people and impoverishing many more.
Advocacy
groups believe that excessive carbon emissions affect countries like
Somalia and Philippines that are not responsible for climate change, but
their people suffer from the consequences.
Engineer
Aidarous Ahmed Hassan, a Fishery Advisor in Mogadishu, told the Nation
that climate change was indeed responsible for the highly unpredictable
weather conditions.
“World leaders must take the right
steps to reduce the effects of global warming and climate changes,
especially on poorer communities in the developing world,” said Eng
Hassan on Wednesday.
Sheikh Bashir Ahmed Salad, the
Chairman of the Supreme Religious Council in Somalia, urged the nation
to help the people affected by the cyclone in the northern regions of
Somalia as well as those affected by floods from Shabelle River in
Middle Shabelle region in Central Somalia.