Flooding hits six million people in East Africa
The number of people hit by seasonal flooding in East Africa has increased more than five fold in four years, according to UN figures. Nearly six million people have been affected this year with 1.5 million of them forced from their homes. Parts of the region are recording the heaviest rains in a century. In 2019, a big temperature differential between the east and west sides of the Indian Ocean was blamed for heavy rainfall.
- The data gathered by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs paints a worrying picture, reports the BBC’s Catherine Byaruhanga. The number of people affected by flooding in East Africa has gone from 1.1 million in 2016 to four million in 2019, to close to six million so far this year – this is before the short rains, which normally peak in November and hit most countries in the region.(BBC)…[+]