At least 70 people have died in Kenya since March in floods caused by above-normal rains, government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said Friday, April 26, on X. The capital, Nairobi, and neighboring counties notably experienced a violent episode of flooding on Wednesday, which left 13 dead and missing and cut off several roads.
“We must put everyone on alert,” Kenyan President William Ruto declared Thursday during a coordination meeting to respond to these floods, recalling in particular the need to move residents from threatened areas. The weather service has warned that “heavy to very heavy” rainfall is forecast through May in several parts of the country.
The “long rainy season” began in late March in Kenya and is expected to last until the end of May or early June. In several East African countries, seasonal rains are combined this year with the El Niño climatic phenomenon, which began in mid-2023 and could last until May, the Organization warned on March 5 World Meteorological Agency (WMO).
Several other African countries affected
In addition to increasing temperatures, El Niño causes droughts in some parts of the world and heavy rains in others. In Tanzania, 155 people have died across the country due to heavy rains “linked to El Niño” which caused floods and landslides, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa announced on Thursday. More than 51,000 homes and 200,000 people were affected, around 236 people were injured, more than 10,000 homes “damaged to varying degrees” and many crops and infrastructure (roads, bridges, railways) destroyed, he said. he detailed.
In Burundi, authorities have reported nearly 100,000 internally displaced people due to almost incessant rains for several months. In Somalia, at least four people have been killed since April 19 following flash floods, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In Uganda, a landlocked country, bad weather left two dead and displaced several hundred people.
El Niño has already wreaked havoc in eastern Africa in the past. In December, at least 89 people were killed in landslides and flooding caused by torrential rains in northern Tanzania. Across the region, more than 300 people died. In Somalia, more than a million people were displaced by floods. From October 1997 to January 1998, gigantic floods fueled by torrential rains caused by El Niño caused more than 6,000 deaths in five countries in the region.
