DAR ES SALAAM, April 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 155 people have died in Tanzania as torrential rains linked to El Nino caused flooding and landslides, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said Thursday.
He told parliament that about 200,000 people had been affected and that there had been significant damage in several parts of the country, with homes, infrastructure and crops destroyed.
El Nino often has devastating consequences in East Africa, a region already hit by repeated climate shocks.
In Kenya, 13 people have been killed in flash floods that hit the capital Nairobi this week, while 100,000 people have been displaced in Burundi by months of relentless rainfall.
“The heavy El Nino rains, accompanied by strong winds, floods, and landslides in various parts of the country, have caused significant damage,” Majaliwa told parliament in Tanzania’s capital Dodoma.
“These include loss of life, destruction of crops, homes, citizens’ property, and infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and railways,” he added.
“As a result… more than 51,000 households and 200,000 people were affected, with 155 fatalities; approximately 236 individuals were injured, and over 10,000 houses were affected to varying degrees.”
Late last year more than 300 people died in torrential rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades.
From October 1997 to January 1998, massive floods caused more than 6,000 deaths in five countries in the region. — NNN-AGENCIES
