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Heavy rains, floods kill 25 people in Somalia-UN

Storyline:National News

GOOBJOOG NEWS|MOGADISHU: At least 25 people have been injured in recent floods and rains that have pounded various parts of the country, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA has said, noting 25,000 other people have been affected.

Among the dead were nine children in Mogadishu while three other people were killed by lightning in Puntland, the UN body said but noted the rains will begin to subside from mid-May.

“An estimated 25,000 people in 15 villages in Jowhar, Middle Shabelle region were affected by riverine flooding, displacing people in eight villages and inundating farms,” OCHA said in a brief Sunday.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Saturday areas within central Somalia particularly Beletweyne was at risk of imminent flooding owing to heavy rains in the southern highlands of Ethiopia.

The level of damage expected could supersede the mitigation and risk measures that have already been implemented, such as rehabilitating river embankments and, as in recent years, a limited evacuation from flood prone areas and extensive crop damage is likely to result, FAO said.