Over two million displaced due to floods across Horn of Africa

More than two million people have been displaced across the Horn of Africa due to torrential rain and flood, the news agency AFP reported late Thursday (Nov 30).

Almost 300 people died in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. The heavy rainfall has been linked to the El Nino weather pattern and struck as the Horn of Africa was emerging from the worst drought in four decades that drove millions into hunger.

On the first day of the COP28 summit in Dubai on Thursday, Action Against Hunger said in a statement that it was a dire situation in the region. "Regions that were struggling to recover from the economic and environmental impacts of prolonged drought are now doubly burdened with flooding," it added.

The Horn of Africa is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, despite Africa's contribution to global carbon emissions being a fraction of the total.

A deep humanitarian crisis in Somalia

This latest incident of flooding has caused a deep humanitarian crisis in Somalia. On Thursday, United Nations and Somali officials said in a joint statement that more than 100 people died and over one million were displaced.

Authorities in the capital city of Mogadishu declared a state of emergency last month and warned against the proliferation of disease. The statement said that an estimated 1.5 million children under the age of five were facing acute malnutrition over the period between August this year and July 2024.

It added that floodwaters could swamp more than 1.5 million hectares in December. The flooding has already engulfed homes and farmland and left many communities marooned. Roads and bridges have been damaged, and hospitals and schools remain closed.

Fears of widespread cholera

The UN's humanitarian response agency OCHA said that 57 people have died and over 600,000 people have been displaced in Ethiopia due to the flooding. The country has been hit by a new cholera outbreak. In the Somali region, cholera has claimed the lives of at least 23 people, with a total of 772 confirmed cases, Save the Children said Thursday.

Save the Children warned the cholera outbreak across Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa could spiral out of control if swift action was not taken by governments and donors to provide clean drinking water and sanitation facilities for communities forced out of their homes by flooding.

Meanwhile, in Kenya, flooding killed 136 people with over 460,000 people displaced.

(With inputs from agencies)