ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) — Some 57 people have died and an estimated 632,700 people have been displaced due to floods in different parts of Ethiopia since October, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has disclosed.
The UNOCHA, in its Ethiopia humanitarian situation update issued Friday, said between October and November, flooding and mudslides from heavy rainfall and river overflows have affected about 1.5 million people, mainly in the Somali, Oromia, Afar, Southern, and Gambela regions of Ethiopia.
According to UNOCHA, more than 1 million people were affected by the floods in Ethiopia’s Somali region alone, the worst impacted by the flooding.
It warned that the overall response capacity is low due to a lack of supplies and funding for the response by the government and humanitarian partners across logistics, food, water, sanitation and hygiene, health, nutrition, emergency shelter and non-food items, and multi-purpose cash clusters.
The UNOCHA further warned that physical access is a major operational challenge, as the main roads and bridges are inundated and damaged, while boats and heavy-duty rough terrain trucks are unavailable.
In some flood-affected areas, the flood waters remain in the impacted communities, making it difficult for the affected communities to resume their normal lives without assistance.
The UNOCHA has recently warned over an exceptionally high forecast probability of experiencing wetter than normal rainfall conditions in southern Ethiopia as elevated rainfall during the season is already contributing to flooding in areas prone to floods.
The months of October to December constitute an important rainfall season, contributing to 20 percent to 70 percent of the annual total rainfall, particularly in the equatorial parts of the Horn of Africa.
