UN support East Africa hit by heavy rains, severe floods, cyclone threat

Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 4th May. UN and partners on Friday said that it is supporting the authorities across East Africa as the region hit by heavy rains and severe floods that have killed 350 people since March.

WMO warned that torrential rains could worsen with the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Hidaya.

WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis told that the tropical cyclone is the first of its kind to develop in eastern Africa and is due to have a “very big impact.”

She said Tanzania was to suffer in particular because the ground is already waterlogged and “is about to get hit by even more rainfall” from the storm.

Kenya is on high alert after a dam burst its banks on Monday, killing at least 45 people.

UNHCR expressed concern about thousands of refugees and other displaced people across East Africa have been uprooted once again after the homes were washed away.

In Kenya, 20,000 people in the Dadaab refugee camps of over 380,000 refugees have been displaced due to the rising water levels.

Many are arrived in the past couple of years after fleeing severe drought in neighboring Somalia.

Some 4,000 residents are sheltering in six schools with facilities that have been extensively damaged. Others are staying with friends or relatives elsewhere in the camp, where several latrines have collapsed, putting refugees at risk of deadly water-borne diseases.

In Burundi, 32,000 refugees are living in flood-affected areas, and 500 require urgent assistance.

Refugee families in Bujumbura, have had to relocate multiple times due to the rising water levels.

UNHCR said access to food and other necessities is increasingly difficult as prices have spiked due to high fees to use canoes to move goods.  Education has ground to a halt as classrooms are flooded and learning materials destroyed.

Beyond Bujumbura, rent prices have reportedly doubled, making it too expensive for many refugee families to relocate. Among the badly affected areas is Nyanza Lac commune in Makamba province, where 25,000 Burundian refugees returning home from exile in recent years have settled.

Other East African countries where displaced people are the hardest hit by the rains include Somalia.

Over 46,000 internally displaced persons in five locations in the south have been forced to relocate due to flash floods.

In Tanzania over 200,000 refugees mainly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi hosted in two camps have been impacted. Shelters within the camps have been damaged, affected some 200 families.

UNHCR is working closely with local authorities and partners across East Africa rushing crucial aid and providing protection services to refugees and affected communities.

The agency is providing refugees in Kenya with tarpaulins, mosquito nets, soap, jerricans and other relief items, with special attention to older persons and people with disabilities.

Families are being helped to relocate to safer locations.

UNHCR’s activities are part of the wider response to the crisis in Kenya, where the UN and partners have reached some 125,000 people so far.

UN Resident Coordinator Stephen Jackson, said overall support includes shelter, food, medicine and cash, in addition to blankets and mosquito nets.

“I think the concern is more rain is coming and so we know the needs are going to deepen before they get better,”.

UNHCR will provide shelter kits and cash assistance to support refugees as part of the interagency response led by the Government in Burundi.

Thousands of former Burundian refugees have returned home are among those prioritized for support.

Teams in Tanzania are working with local partners to rehabilitate refugee shelters, while in Somalia, critical protection assistance and essential items are being delivered to internally displaced families.

UNHCR said climate change is making world increasingly un habitable, fragile regions like East Africa and the Horn of Africa, and the floods reveal gaps in preparedness and early action.

“Funding available to address the impacts of climate change is not reaching those forcibly displaced, nor the communities hosting them. Without help to prepare for, withstand and recover from climate-related shocks, they face an increased risk of further displacement,” UNHCR said.

UNHCR launched its Climate Resilience Fund to protect refugees and displaced people from climate shocks. The aim is to raise $100 million by the end of 2025.

The agency said that contributions will support initiatives such as providing more clean energy to power the water, schools and health infrastructure used by refugees and host communities.