Somalia floods leave 15,000 homeless

Mothers with small children are first in the queue for shelter after floods broke East Africa’s drought driving thousands of Somali families out of their homes. In a devastating blow to hundreds of thousands of people already reeling from severe droughts, floods caused by four days of torrential rains have made more than 15,000 people homeless in south western Somalia. Most homes and businesses are completely in the town of El-Waq near the Kenyan border, say locals. "Most of the town is under water, with people moving to higher ground around the town," said resident, Alaso Gurhan.

Local authorities have already been able to move many people to safer areas, she said, adding that mothers with young children and the elderly were being given priority in the handing out of shelter material. "We are all in the open now with very little help,” she told the United Nations news service, IRIN. “We don’t have much so we have to give first to the weakest." Families lost virtually all their personal belonging in the torrential rains that pounded the area for hours. And a lot of cattle have reportedly died because of the rains. "Hundreds of goats and sheep weakened by the drought have succumbed to the rains and the cold weather," said Ali Hassan, a civil society activist.

Like the rest of Somalia, Mr Hassan said that El-Waq was waiting for the rain but it was "too much in too short a time. If the rain continues the way it has for the last four days we will be in serious trouble." Most people who live in the town, about 18,000 with some 900 displaced families (5,400 people) from Mogadishu, had been affected. "We are no better than the displaced today," he added. He said the population was concentrating on the hills around the town. "Any higher ground in the area is now occupied."

Townspeople are using the loud-speakers in mosques to tell people to help the weak and to get to higher ground. Meanwhile, engineers working for aid organisations in the area are furiously digging trenches to drain the water from the town. But there is still a danger of more flooding because the rains have not stopped. Things to build makeshift shelters out of are desperately needed, said Mr Hassan. "There are many people who are too weak to stay in the open or in the flimsy shelters we have. We need help in the provision of tents and other shelter material if we are to avert a serious health situation."

There are fears that now with the rains mosquitoes and waterborne diseases will take hold. Some areas might see water supplies reappearing after the drought, said to be the worst in decades, but the downpour is not expected to relieve food shortages in the region until harvests in 2010. British charity Oxfam said last month that more than 23 million people face severe hunger and destitution across East Africa because of the direct or indirect effects of the drought, which has lasted five years in some areas.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children