The worst flooding to hit Somalia in decades has killed 29 people and forced more than 300,000 to flee their homes, the National Disaster Management Agency said on Wednesday, following heavy rains that have inundated towns across East Africa.
Authorities have scrambled to rescue thousands of stranded people from the floodwater, which comes on the heels of the region’s worst drought in 40 years.
At least 2,400 people have been cut off in Luuq town, where the Jubba River burst its banks, the United Nations has said.
Floods in neighboring Kenya have killed at least 15 people and submerged a bridge in Uganda, cutting off a road linking Kampala to oilfields in the northwest, the Kenya Red Cross and Uganda’s road authority said.
Experts say that the regional deluge was caused by the combined effect of two weather phenomenons, El Niño and the Indian Ocean Dipole.
