Floods in Ethiopia leave at least 45 people dead

MOGADISHU, Somalia

Recent floods in Ethiopia have killed 45 people and displaced more than 35,000 households, the UN said on Monday.

Floods have caused widespread destruction and displacement in the regions of Somali, Oromia, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples, South West Ethiopia Peoples, and Afar, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“Over 23,000 livestock perished, and more than 99,000 hectares of farmland were destroyed in the Somali Region alone,” the OCHA said in a statement on Monday.

The UN agency said the humanitarian partners and the government of Ethiopia are providing lifesaving assistance to affected communities, but “assistance remains inadequate relative to the scale of needs.”

An emergency relief fund of $40 million will be allocated to address the needs of people affected by flood and drought, according to the statement.

“The flooding has deepened the vulnerability of populations whose resilience is already highly affected by the impact of a prolonged drought since 2020 as the areas most affected by flooding and drought overlap,” OCHA said.

The floods have also exacerbated health risks, including cholera, which continues to be reported in five regions of the Horn of Africa nation.

The outbreak that began last August have killed 94 people, with 6,157 cases reported so far.