East Africa floods kill hundreds, displace thousands

Hundreds of people have perished in floods across East Africa that have also displaced thousands, officials said.

The floods have hit Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania since April.

Scores have been killed by the floods in Kenya and thousands have fled as properties were destroyed and roads were rendered impassable in the country.

Kenya Power, the national electricity utility company, said on Friday its Nairobi West substation was flooded following heavy rains in the capital city which led to the Nairobi dam bursting its banks. Power was lost in several parts of the city.

In a statement on its Twitter account, the company said it switched off power on Thursday night as a safety precautionary measure because of the floods.

Eugene Wamalwa, Kenya's devolution cabinet secretary, said at a news conference on Thursday that at least 237 people across the country had died as a result of floods since the onset of rains in April.

Wamalwa said 807,000 people and 161,000 households had been affected by the floods. He said Lake Victoria was the worst-hit area, with more than 44,000 people displaced in Budalagi and over 60,000 in Nyando.

Human activity

Keriako Tobiko, the cabinet secretary for the environment, attributed the widespread flooding partly to human activity, including the clearance of forests from hill tops and slopes in the area.

The Kenya Meteorological Department projected the heavy rains will continue through June.

In Somalia, at least 25 people have died, including nine children after their house in Banadir was flooded on May 7, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Four people were also killed by lightning in Puntland on May 5.

The UN agency said an estimated 25,000 people in 15 villages in the Jowhar district, Middle Shabelle region, were affected by riverine flooding.

The Food and Agriculture Organization warned on May 8 that thousands of people in Somalia are at immediate risk from floods as river levels continued to rise.

The UN agency said the Shabelle River had risen at an alarming rate due to unprecedented and excessive rains.

Heavy showers on the upper parts of the Ethiopian highlands were causing large volumes of water to flow rapidly toward Somalia.

It said climate change and factors such as weakened riverbanks as result of erosion have also made the floods worse.

The agency added that at times, river banks are also intentionally broken by communities so they could irrigate their crops.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Thursday that flooding from heavy rains in Ethiopia has left 27,000 people displaced in the Afar region.