An internally displaced Somali boy wades through flood waters outside their makeshift shelter following heavy rains at the Al Hidaya camp for the internally displaced people on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, November 6, 2023 REUTERS/Feisal Omar
MOGADISHU — Floods caused by heavy rains across parts of Somalia have displaced more than 113,000 people and “temporarily affected” hundreds of thousands, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) said Monday.
About 10 people have died in the aftermath of the rains, and the government has declared a statement of emergency, Somali Disaster Management Agency said on its account on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
The rain comes a year after the Horn of Africa nation suffered its worst drought in four decades, which, combined with violence and a rise in food prices caused by the war in Ukraine, killed as many as 43,000 people, according to the UN.
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The current October-December rainfall season has seen intense downpours in Puntland, Galmudug, South West, Hirshabelle states, and areas along the Juba River in Jubbaland State, OCHA said, driven by El Niño.
A view shows floods in Dolow, Somalia on November 5, 2023, in this screen grab from a video obtained from social media. Abdifatah Hassan Omar/via REUTERS
El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon in which surface waters of the central and eastern Pacific become unusually warm and cause changes in weather patterns worldwide.
“Over 706,100 people have been temporarily affected, with over 113,690 people temporarily displaced from their homes across the country,” the office said in its latest update.
Southwest and Jubbaland states were the worst hit, with a total of about 536,608 people affected, OCHA said.
Amina Mohamed Bobshe, a resident of the Lower Shabelle region, said they endured five days of rain and the resulting floods forced her to flee to a camp for internally displaced people outside the capital Mogadishu.
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“We are suffering. The little things we had were washed away by rain. This morning, I missed a cup of tea for the children. Please help us urgently,” Bobshe told Reuters.
In the Luuq area of southwest Gedo region, some 2,400 people were trapped by floods, OCHA said, adding that steps were being taken to rescue them.
Another 14,000 families had been cut off from the main town in Baardhere, OCHA said.
Earlier this year, floods pushed a quarter of a million people from their homes after the Shabelle River in central Somalia broke its banks and submerged the town of Beledweyne.
READ: ‘We had to flee’: Somalia on the run from extreme climate
Aid agencies and scientists have warned climate change is among the key factors accelerating humanitarian emergencies, while those impacted are some of the least responsible for CO2 emissions.