River flooding displaces thousands in the east

Ethiopian authorities and relief agencies have rushed help to thousands of displaced people in the eastern parts of the country after the Awash River flooded its banks, washing away villages and killing hundreds of livestock. "The rains came in from the highlands to the lowlands in a very abrupt way, so that it took people by surprise," Paulette Jones, spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Ethiopia, said on Tuesday. "In the Somali region, the authorities have reported that around 400 sheep and goats [were] washed away by the flood. We have received no report of human death, but as far as we know, the rains are still continuing in some areas of the region." The floods have displaced at least 10,000 people. WFP reported in the weekly humanitarian update prepared by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that some 7,000 people were displaced after the river burst its banks on 9 April in the eastern Afar region, and another 3,000 were forced out of their homes more recently in the remote Lasarat village, 17 km away from Ayisha woreda in Shinille zone, in the eastern Somali region. Local woreda officials said the floods had destroyed nearly 200 houses and hindered access to some of the affected villages. Ethiopia's federal authorities reported that food, plastic sheeting and clean water were being distributed to those affected. Some 12,000 long-lasting insecticide nets had been given to the affected populations in the Afar region to prevent malaria from spreading. Since the beginning of the year, the chronically drought-stricken Somali region has suffered a severe drought that left 1.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. The region regularly suffers from severe droughts, with average rainfall of just over 250 mm a year. In May 2005, floods disrupted relief efforts in the region. Trucks laden with relief items were stuck on impassable roads for nearly three weeks. The flooding displaced thousands of people in an area stretching from Kelafo to Mustahil town, where original floodwaters had receded and people were returning to their homes. Last year, the floods first hit the remote Somali region when Ethiopia's largest river, the Wabe Shebelle, burst its banks. Flooding also occurred in the Denan area of Gode zone and in parts of Fik zone. The Genale and Dawa rivers in the western parts of the region also overflowed their banks, interrupting communications within large parts of Afder and Liben zones.