Flooding kills 528 in East Africa amid heavy rains

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Saturday June 1, 2024

This aerial view shows the damages of a main road and houses submerged in water following heavy floods in Garissa, on May 8, 2024. (Photo: CFP)

At least 528 people had been killed by heavy rains and flash floods that continue to cause damage and displacement across East Africa, the United Nations relief agency said on Friday.

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The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that as of May 30, about 1.6 million people, mainly in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, had been affected, including up to 482,320 people displaced.

“Humanitarian partners across the East African region continue to support governments in search and rescue operations, conducting needs assessments, pre-positioning available stocks, and providing urgent assistance,” the OCHA said in its heavy rains update released in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Rainfall was expected to decrease in the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya, Somalia, and southern-southeast Ethiopia in late May.

However, according to the Climate Prediction and Applications Center of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, several areas in the region — Djibouti, Eritrea, central and northern Ethiopia, western and coastal Kenya, much of Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan — are expected to receive above-average rainfall for the June-to-September period.

June to September is an important rainy season, especially in the northern and western parts of the Greater Horn of Africa, where it generally contributes more than 40 percent of the annual rainfall and more than 90 percent in parts of the north.

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