The Government of Somalia reported this Thursday that 96 people have died due to the rains and floods that are affecting the country due to the passage of the 'El Niño' storm in the Horn of Africa. The floods have come months after the longest and most severe drought on record in the Horn, a water shortage that left Somalia on the brink of famine and with 6.6 million people acutely food insecure, according to the UN. .
The floods have damaged or even destroyed many homes in the region, forcing many residents to move and take shelter under trees or on higher ground. The authorities, who have met in Mogadisco to discuss the response to the storm, have stated that the heavy rains have affected almost two million people, mainly in the states of Hirshabelle (center), Southwestern Somalia and Jubaland (south).
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned that serious flooding caused by intense and persistent rains in the Horn of Africa is forcing the displacement of thousands of families, including refugees in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. .
Likewise, clean and safe drinking water has become a scarce commodity and health services have also been affected, as have thousands of heads of livestock and hectares of crops. This situation as a whole has increased the risk of "worsening an already precarious food situation," UNHCR lamented.
In this context, some refugees have welcomed the newly displaced into their homes, which is why many are in overcrowded conditions. In this sense, sanitation has become one of the main causes of concern of the United Nations Refugee Agency, since "hundreds of communal latrines have been damaged, putting people at risk of infectious diseases, including cholera ".
Thus, it is expected that "4.3 million people (a quarter of the population) will face critical levels of hunger by the end of this year," according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). ).
