ETHIOPIA: Aid workers appeal for more help as flood toll reaches 112

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ADDIS ABABA, 2 May 2005 (IRIN) - The death toll from flooding in eastern Ethiopia reached 112 on Monday as humanitarian organisations appealed for more aid for survivors.

Some 105,000 people had been affected by the flooding, and that figure was expected to increase as torrential rains continue to wreak havoc, officials told IRIN.

Tens of thousands were homeless after fleeing floodwaters, rescuers added. Officials were planning to declare a state of emergency in Somali Region, which is the size of Britain and has a population of four million people.

"We are going to declare an emergency," said Remedan Haji Ahmed, who was Heading the government's emergency response from Jijiga, the Somali region capital. "The situation is extremely serious and people are still dying. Thousands are unable to return to their homes because of flooding and crocodiles."

At least 24 of the flood victims were children, many of whom were swept away while sleeping, and crocodiles have eaten 19 people, Remedan added.

"We are still finding bodies," he said.

In a telephone interview, Ahmed explained that relief efforts were hampered because many villages remain inaccessible. Flooding had destroyed at least 84 villages, he said.

Thousands of animals had also been swept way, destroying the incomes of families who eke out a living by raising livestock in one of Ethiopia's poorest states.

Weather forecasters were predicting continued thunderstorms in the rain-battered region, some 700 km southeast of the capital Addis Ababa.

Aid workers said food, plastic sheeting and clean water were beginning to get through to survivors but that more help was needed to prevent disease spreading.

"The aid is beginning to get through but we need more," Eric Durpaire, from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Somali Region, told IRIN.

He said the priority now was getting clean water to survivors to prevent diarrhoea, one of the biggest killers in Ethiopia. He also warned of malaria outbreaks in the coming weeks.

Somali region, in eastern Ethiopia, usually suffers from severe droughts and has average rainfalls of a little more than 250 millimetres a year.

After heavy rains last Saturday, the Wabe Shebelle, Ethiopia's largest river stretching 1,340 km, burst its banks and forced survivors to flee their homes for the safety of higher ground.

Heavy rains and floods also hit Hargeysa, the capital of Somaliland, and washed away one of the two bridges in the southwestern part of the city.

In the last major floods in 2003, 119 people were killed in Ethiopia.

[ENDS]