Floods kill five in northern Ethiopia

By Abraham Fisseha, AFP | August 11, 2006

The flooding in northern Amhara and Tigray regions, which started on Wednesday, comes less than a week after flash floods killed 256 in an eastern township of the country.

Three people drowned in the district of Gondor and two others were washed away in Kemissie in northern Ethiopia on Wednesday as a heavy downpour continued to pound several parts of the country, the officials said Friday.

"A 10-year-old child, a baby girl and her mother were washed away by flash floods in northern Gondor, while two others were killed in Kemissie ... in Amhara Regional state," about 340 kilometres (212 miles) north of the capital, Atrsaw Melles, a regional information official, said.

In the neighbouring Tigray state, about 950 kilometres (590 miles) north of the capital, the river Tekze broke its banks and swept throught Humera township and displaced about 400 people, while thousands of others were preparing to escape to higher grounds, they said.

"As rain is increasing daily, 4,000 residents in the area are preparing to move away to a higher grounds before it gets worse," Inspector Hadush Mekonen, a regional police official said.

The new deaths were reported as police recovered two more bodies, bringing the death toll to 256 in Dire Dawa township, from a sudden heavy downpour at the weekend triggered flash floods that swept through the township and adjacent areas.

"We have recovered two more bodies today and now the death toll stands at 256," the region's police official Inspector Beniam Fikru told AFP. "We have appealed to the public to report any missing family members."

And as humanitarian groups scrambled to feed about 10,000 displaced people camped in tents and schools, the World Food Programme (WFP) described the flooding as a "humanitarian disaster" and appealed for more help to be delivered.

"Everyone appreciates the need to move quickly and to help people, many of whom have nothing but clothes on their backs, in whatever way we can. The extensive flooding, destruction and loss of life has brought about can only be described as a humanitarian disaster," the WFP's representative in Ethiopia Abnezer Ngowi said in a statement.

"It is rainy in Ethiopia ... so flooding, swollen rivers and landslides are quite usual during this season," Patrick Megevand, the spokesman for the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) told AFP by phone.

As search efforts for about 3,000 people missing continued, police said there were indications of human remains about three kilometres (1.8 miles) outside the ravaged city.

"We have received new information from the public that are indications of the existence of human remains and we have dispatched a team to recover them," the region's police official Inspector Beniam Fikru told AFP.

Beniam estimated the cost of the damage wrought by the floods at about 30 million Birrs (3.4 million dollars, 2.6 million euros) in the impoverished country of about 70 million people, a majority of whom depend on subsistence agriculture for their survival.

"Currently property damaged stands at about 30 million birr. This does not include household items and other smaller properties," Benium said, citing preliminary figures.

In the past few years, flooding has affected large areas of eastern and southern Ethiopia, displacing tens of thousands of people and causing damage running into millions of dollars, particularly to agriculture.

Last year, at least 200 people were killed and more than 260,000 displaced when heavy rains pounded the region, flooding rivers that quickly attracted large numbers of crocodiles, forcing survivors to cling to trees to escape being eaten.