The floods leave at least 50 dead and more than 21,000 families displaced, as well as 21,000 hectares of crops destroyed in three weeks
9 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The NGO Save the Children has warned this week of the impact caused by torrential rains on rural communities in Ethiopia and Somalia, where sudden floods have left at least 50 dead and more than 21,000 families displaced, as well as 21,000 hectares of crops destroyed in three weeks at a time when both countries are trying to pull themselves together after three years of drought.
Save the Children understands that this extreme climate “demonstrates the vulnerability of the countries of the Horn of Africa to the climate emergency situation” that the planet is going through. Drought in Somalia and Ethiopia has left 25 million hungry, including 2.5 million children. A total of approximately 345 million people around the world will be food insecure this year, more than double the number in 2020.
The effects of the drought have multiplied the devastating effect of the torrential rains, which have fallen on soil so dry that it has been unable to absorb water. The rivers have overflowed and the crops have not been able to grow.
“It’s one tragedy on top of another,” laments Save the Children’s regional spokesperson, Malama Mwila. “These families had been waiting for the rain for three years, and when it comes it ends up washing away the few crops they had left,” she adds.
“And here we see once again,” he concludes, “the link between hunger and the climate crisis, and how the poorest communities, and their children in particular, bear the brunt of both.”
