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Flooding displaces thousands.
Wednesday Nov. 15, 2006
8:30 AM
By themercury.co.za
MOGADISHU: Floods caused by torrential rain in parts of southern Somalia had killed more than 23 people and displaced thousands over the past five days, aid workers and residents said yesterday.
Ali Bashi, head of the Fanoole Human Rights Organisation, said the highest number of deaths had been reported in the Gedo region, which borders both Ethiopia and Kenya.
He said nine people had died in the floods there, among them four children.
Local representatives of the international committee of the Red Cross, and local non-governmental organisations said thousands of people had been forced to leave their homes after rain had caused the Jubba and Shabelle rivers to burst their banks in five regions of the country.
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Drivers said they had seen thousands of people on roads that passed a string of towns near the Jubba and Shabelle rivers.
Dozens of these people arrived in the capital, Mogadishu, to take refuge in temporary camps here.
David Gilmore of Care International said the southern agricultural town of Jowhar - which has hundreds of canals cutting through it - and the surrounding areas had been devastated by heavy flooding from the nearby Shabelle River.
"The torrential rainfall has affected road transport, where much-needed relief supplies and food have been cut off to communities, which have been affected by consecutive years of drought," Gilmore said. - Sapa-AP
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