Rains displace hundreds in Somaliland

At least 200 families have been displaced and 185 houses destroyed following heavy rains and strong winds, which also killed six people in Hargeisa, capital of the semi-autonomous Somaliland region, officials said.



Some 2,500 people have been displaced in all, according to the Red Crescent. The worst-affected areas were the southern Hargeisa districts of Ahmed Dhagah, Mohamed Moge and Mohamoud Haybe.



"One of my sister's children aged about six passed away when the house fell on him," Fathiya Omar, a resident of Sinai settlement in Hargeisa's Ahmed Dhagah District, told IRIN.



"At about two in the afternoon, on [23 April], we suddenly saw something like a dark cloud covering our whole settlement. Within minutes, it had taken all our houses' roofs off," Hodo Ahmed, 25, who lives in the October settlement of Mohamoud Haybe District, said.



About 94 families are displaced in Ahmed Dhagah, the district commissioner, Khadar Yusuf Ali, said.



Officials are worried there could be further displacement in the Dami Dam Internally Displaced Persons settlement, in Hargeisa, due to continuing rains.



"Our houses are full of water," Asha Mohamoud, said in Dami Dam.



According to the Ministry of Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Re-integration, household items and plastic tents worth US$35,000 have been distributed. The UN World Food Programme has also supplied food aid to the affected.



Some residents complained of a lack of assistance, however. "I am a mother of 12 and for the last two nights we have slept outside. We have not received any help... we are waiting for Allah's support," Nimo Hassan told IRIN on 26 April.



maj/aw/am