Heavy rains kill five, displace hundreds

Flash floods, triggered by torrential rains, have killed five people in the Hiraan region of southcentral Somalia, community leaders said.

"We found three of the dead carried by floods and we managed to retrieve the dead bodies," Saleban Jim'aale, a village elder from the town of Jalalaqsi, about 180 km north of the capital, Mogadishu, said. "The majority of people are homeless and they are spending the night in hilly areas."

Three of the dead were children, Jim'aale said.

The flash floods have devastated several villages in the region. The elders from Jalalaqsi, the hardest hit area, said the region witnessed a continued heavy downpour since Friday.

The floods swept away dozens of huts, submerged five villages and killed hundreds of head of livestock. Large tracts of farmland were inundated following the rains, and the main roads linking the area to other towns became inaccessible, according to the locals, raising fears that the number of casualties could be higher.

Meanwhile, in the Middle Shabelle Region, heavy rains were also reported on Saturday in Jowhar town, 90 km north of Mogadishu. Sources in the town said several families were displaced after the torrential rains damaged their mud houses. The Horseed and Hantiwadag sections of Jowhar town experienced the most damage.

In the Toghdeer region of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, similar downpours have caused havoc. According to Mahamud Ahmed, mayor of Burao - the region's headquarters - heavy rains accompanied by strong winds swept the roofs off more than 30 buildings, including a primary school and a tannery.

For decades, torrential rains and floods have devastated Somali regions and weakened a population already suffering from the ravages of civil war and recurring drought.