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Impact of Flash Floods in Somalia, 200.00 People Forced to Evacuate. PHOTO/Reuters
BELDWEYNE – About 200,000 people have been displaced due to Flash floods Of Somalia center, a regional official told AFP on Saturday (13/5/2023). Flash floods occur when the Shabelle River overflows and submerges the road.
Residents of the town of Beledweyne in the Hiran region were forced out of their homes as heavy rains caused the water level to rise sharply. Residents carried their belongings overhead as they waded through the flooded streets seeking shelter.
“Approximately 200,000 people are now displaced by the flash floods of the Shabelle River in the town of Beledweyne and the number could increase at any time. Those are preliminary figures now,” said Ali Osman Hussein, deputy governor for social affairs in the Hiran region.
“We are doing everything we can to help those affected,” he told AFP.
Meanwhile, Deputy Governor of the region, Hassan Ibrahim Abdulle said, that “three people died due to flooding.”
The disaster comes after a record drought that has left millions of Somalis on the brink of famine. The pain is compounded as the troubled country has also battled a decades-long insurgency by Islamist radicals.
Residents told AFP they were forced to leave their homes in the middle of the night earlier this week because water was gushing through the streets and into buildings.
Fartun Ali – not his real name – said this was the fifth time he had fled flash floods in Beledweyne. “Every time the river rushed over the banks, we fled,” said the 35-year-old mother of eight.
