At least 155 people have died in Tanzania as torrential rains linked to El Niño triggered floods and landslides, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Thursday.
Tanzania and other East African countries — a region particularly vulnerable to climate change — have been hit by heavier than usual rainfall during the current rainy season, with dozens of deaths also reported in Kenya.
Majaliwa said more than 51,000 households and 200,000 people have been affected by the rains, with 155 deaths and 236 injured.
“Heavy El Niño rains, accompanied by strong winds, floods and landslides in various parts of the country, have caused significant damage,” Majaliua told parliament in the Tanzanian capital Dodoma.
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“These include loss of life, destruction of crops, homes, civilian property and infrastructure such as roads, bridges and railways,” he added.
El Niño is a natural climate usually associated with increased global heat, as well as drought in some parts of the world and heavy rainfall elsewhere, and it can have devastating effects on East Africa.
In Burundi, one of the poorest countries on the planet, some 96,000 people have been displaced by months of relentless rain.
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In addition, about 45 people have been killed in Kenya since the start of the rainy season in March, including 13 who died in flash floods in the capital Nairobi this week.
Kenyan President William Ruto called an emergency multi-agency meeting on Thursday to respond to the crisis after torrential rains caused flooding that wreaked havoc in the city, closing roads and bridges and submerging homes in a slum.
Kenyans have been warned to remain alert, with more heavy rain expected across the country, and officials said people living in the most vulnerable areas would be relocated.
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“The government… will do whatever it takes, use all the necessary resources in money and personnel to make sure that no lives are lost and that the people of Kenya are protected from this disaster,” Vice President Rigathi Gachagua said in journalists. update.
Meanwhile, the UN’s humanitarian response agency, OCHA, said in a briefing this week that in Somalia, rains in Gu (April to June) are intensifying with flash floods reported since 19 April.
It said that four people have been reported killed at least 134 families or more than 800 people are affected or displaced across the country.
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Late last year, more than 300 people died in torrential rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia as the region struggled to recover from the worst drought in four decades that left millions hungry .
From October 1997 to January 1998, massive floods caused more than 6,000 deaths in five countries in the region.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in March that El Niño, which peaked in December, was one of the five strongest on record.
Although the weather pattern is now gradually weakening, its impact will continue in the coming months by feeding heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases, he said.
Therefore, “above-normal temperatures are forecast over almost all land areas between March and May,” the WMO said in a quarterly update.
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