BELEDWEYNE, Somalia – Many families have been displaced from several areas of Hir-Shabelle and Jubbaland amid fears of flash flooding by the Jubba and Shabelle rivers.
Hundreds of families have left the cities of Baladweyne in the Hiraan region and Luuq in the Gedo region which witnessed a heavy downpour as the autumn rains started in Somalia.
In the Middle Shabelle region, a state of high alert has been put in the areas that have been affected by floods and rains in recent times so that people are not isolated there.
Somalia’s National Disaster Management SODMA issued a warning saying that it calls on people to stay away from high-risk areas, especially areas where rivers and rainwater flow.
It called for avoiding the many dangerous effects that people may experience if they do not show more attention and caution in the floods of the Overflowing rivers from Ethiopia.
After a brutal and historic drought in 2022, Somalia now braces for the El Niño rains. Forecasts warn that the El Niño rains, expected to start in October and last until October would trigger severe flooding in southern and central Somalia.
The rains have so far displaced at least 86,000 people within Baidoa. These numbers are likely to be higher because they don’t include other districts of South West State, which also received rains though not to the extent of what was witnessed in Baidoa.
El Nino is characteriesd by abnormal warming of temperatures on the surface of the sea over the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean due to weakening of trade winds.
