Thirty-four people were carried away by floods from the Wabi Shabelle river in the Somali regional state of eastern Ethiopia following heavy rains, Ethiopian radio reported on Saturday. Some 700,000 people were reportedly affected and the local council appealed to the country’s Disaster Prevention and Prepardness Commission (DPPC) for the dispatch of immediate relief. The DPPC said it had deployed a team that would assess and report the extent of the disaster and was awaiting a reply so as to “act accordingly”. Local leaders said the waters had engulfed 43 of the 83 neighbourhoods. Hundreds of domestic animals were killed and crops, covering some 4,000 hectares, were destroyed.
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