{"id":743,"date":"2018-05-22T07:06:13","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T07:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/?p=743"},"modified":"2018-05-22T07:07:38","modified_gmt":"2018-05-22T07:07:38","slug":"mogadishu-flooding-as-heaviest-rainfall-for-30-years-hits-somalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/2018\/05\/22\/mogadishu-flooding-as-heaviest-rainfall-for-30-years-hits-somalia\/","title":{"rendered":"Mogadishu flooding as heaviest rainfall for 30 years hits Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOGADISHU (SOHA) –\u00a0<\/strong>At least six people are thought to have died in\u00a0Mogadishu\u00a0as record rainfall\u00a0brought a wave of flooding and destruction to\u00a0Somalia.<\/p>\n

Large\u00a0storms\u00a0rocked the southern and central areas of the country on\u00a0Saturday, including the capital, where water eventually stood almost a metre deep in some parts of the city.<\/p>\n

Somali media reported six people had been killed by the flooding so far, while hundreds of homes were also thought to have been damaged or destroyed.<\/p>\n

The United Nation\u2019s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the rainfall was the heaviest the country had seen in more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It estimated more than 750,000 people had been affected by the flooding, while damage to infrastructure and cropland had also been widespread.<\/p>\n

A new $80m (\u00a359m) appeal has been launched by the\u00a0UN\u00a0in a bid to provide short-term relief to the more than 200,000 people thought to have been displaced by the rainfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs climate change risks invariably increase, more resources are needed to address the root causes of fragility, chronic poverty and low human development that are affecting the bulk of the population,\u201d said UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Peter de Clercq.<\/p>\n

Mayor\u00a0of Mogadishu, Abdirahman Omar Osman, said emergency meetings had been held\u00a0with the\u00a0army\u00a0and national security advisers to coordinate a response to the floods in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration continues to provide assistance with the impact of the rainfall,\u201d he wrote on\u00a0Twitter: \u201cWe ask citizens to take part in the rescue to help victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank the public and the military for providing assistance to Mogadishu\u00a0for the impact of rainfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flooding comes against the backdrop of an on-going\u00a0humanitarian effort\u00a0to provide aid to millions of people in the country hit by several consecutive drought seasons.<\/p>\n

The first half of Somalia\u2019s rainy season, which began in March, recorded unprecedented levels of rainfall only comparable with storms seen in Somalia in 1981, experts said.<\/p>\n

Heavy rains across the country and in the\u00a0Ethiopian\u00a0highlands have caused the Juba and Shabelle rivers to burst their banks, causing flash flooding in some areas.<\/p>\n

OCHA warned more devastation is likely to take place if heavy rains continue, although the full impact of the flooding had yet to be established.<\/p>\n

Source: The INDEPENDENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOGADISHU (SOHA) –\u00a0At least six people are thought to have died in\u00a0Mogadishu\u00a0as record rainfall\u00a0brought a wave of flooding and destruction to\u00a0Somalia. Large\u00a0storms\u00a0rocked the southern and central areas of the country on\u00a0Saturday, including the capital, where water eventually stood almost a metre deep in some parts of the city. Somali media reported six people had been …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-environment-and-disasters","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t