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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
/ | |
Scores missing as Kenya ravaged by mass flooding | |
By Larry Madowo and Isaac Oyombe, CNN | |
Updated: | |
11:23 AM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
At least 91 people are missing after across Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, | |
the government said Tuesday, after weeks of heavy rain and flash floods | |
ravaged parts of the country. | |
Some 76 people are missing after flooding near the hard hit town of Mai | |
Mahiu, northwest of Nairobi. Locals and first responders told CNN the | |
disaster was caused by water blowing through a clogged tunnel under a | |
railway bridge. So far, 71 people have been confirmed dead as a result | |
of the incident. | |
A further 10 people are missing in Kenya’s eastern region, four in | |
Nairobi County and one in the coastal region, which borders the Indian | |
Ocean, said Isaac Mwaura, a government spokesperson. | |
The floods have also led to the displacement of 190,942 Kenyans, which | |
Mwaura said is around 5,000 more people than on Monday. | |
“Nairobi County is the worst hit with 147,000 fellow Kenyans being | |
displaced and, therefore, it accounts for 77% of all the displacement | |
in the country,” he said. | |
A CNN team on the ground said in one area of Mai Mahiu a strong smell | |
led villagers to believe a body lay under a pile of uprooted trees and | |
mud. | |
One resident, a motorbike taxi rider, who did not wish to be named, | |
told CNN he had provided fuel for a power saw that was being used to | |
cut down uprooted trees. | |
“Ask the government to send us excavators,” he said. | |
Kenyan President William Ruto has ordered the military to deploy | |
personnel to help find missing people. | |
The CNN team said a body of a young man was pulled out of the flood | |
debris earlier on Tuesday in the same area after the ring of a mobile | |
phone prompted neighbours to start digging. They say it took the | |
residents hours of digging on Monday and Tuesday to be able to recover | |
that body. | |
Mwaura said the government has set up 52 “displacement camps” – | |
an increase of two since Monday – to provide those affected by the | |
flooding “with alternative temporary accommodation.” | |
“The weather forecast from April 30 to May 6 indicates that rainfall | |
is expected to continue over several parts of the country,” he said, | |
which he warned ” threatens to exacerbate the ongoing floods.” | |
The government is “providing food and non-food items and offering | |
rescue and evacuation,” Mwaura also noted. | |
Kenya has registered heavy rain since mid-March but downpours have | |
intensified over the past week, leading to mass flooding which has | |
killed dozens of people. | |
“Kenya is facing a worsening flood crisis due to the combined effects | |
of El Niño and the ongoing March-May 2024 long rains,” IFRC | |
Secretary General and CEO Jagan Chapagain , referring to the climate | |
pattern that originates in the Pacific Ocean along the equator and | |
impacts weather all over the world. | |
“Since November 2023, El Niño triggered devastating floods and river | |
overflows, causing more than a hundred deaths and widespread damage.” | |
The Horn of Africa, a region of East Africa that includes Kenya, is | |
one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world. Heavy rains | |
have also affected Tanzania and Burundi. | |
The impact of Kenya’s most recent rains also may have been worsened | |
by falling on very hard, dry soils after years of catastrophic drought, | |
which affected many parts of Kenya, killing livestock and crops and | |
causing widespread hunger and water insecurity. This drought was made | |
100 times more likely by planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels, an | |
April World Weather Attribution found. | |
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