News:
NAIROBI: Kenya said on Sunday (May 5) that the death toll from weeks of devastating rains and floods had risen to 228 and warned that there was no sign of a let-up in the crisis.
Source: AFP/ec
Kenya and Tanzania face 'humanitarian crisis' amid disastrous floods
Kenya and neighbouring Tanzania escaped major damage from a tropical cyclone that weakened after making landfall on Saturday, but the rains continue to pour.
The country continued to endure torrential downpours and the risk of further floods and landslides, the government in Nairobi said.
In western Kenya, the River Nyando burst its banks in the early hours of Sunday, engulfing a police station, school, hospital and market in the town of Ahero in Kisumu County, police said.
Weeks of heavier than usual seasonal rains, compounded by the El Nino weather pattern, have wreaked chaos in many parts of East Africa, a region highly vulnerable to climate change.
Schools closed
Schools remain closed,... Children will be able to catch up on classes, the Education minister told her.
"It's a serious situation and we should not take it lightly,"
Kenyan government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said at a briefing on the crisis on Sunday.
President William Ruto went to the area of Mathare in the capital to reassure the population.
Concerns of 'wider humanitarian crisis'
The government has ordered anyone living near major rivers or dams to leave the area or face "mandatory evacuation for their safety", with many dams or reservoirs threatening to overflow.
Mwaura also warned of the risk of waterborne diseases, with one case of cholera reported as well as incidents of diarrhoea.
Forecasts of more rains raised "serious concerns" about a "wider humanitarian crisis", Jagan Chapagain, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), wrote on social media.
The current devastating floods in Kenya exacerbate the existing humanitarian challenges in the country where millions are already grappling with acute food insecurity due to prolonged drought.
Source: AFP/ec
Kenya, a country firmly on the frontlines of the climate crisis, has swung from a devastating, multi-year drought — which scientists said was made at least 100 times more likely by climate change — into deadly flooding.
(CNN World)
