Hundreds of thousands of people in need of aid as heavy rain lashes central and eastern Africa

This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

Dozens of people have been killed across central and eastern Africa after heavy rains triggered landslides and caused rivers to burst their banks.

Twenty-five people were reported to have been killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s northwestern province of Équateur, Congolese media reports have said, while almost 40 people have died in Kenya and Tanzania.

A spokesman for the Catholic charity Caritas-Congo said that “local authorities have recorded 10 deaths in the [DRC] province of North Ubangi”.

More than 180,000 people were in need of humanitarian assistance in the same northern region, which has also been hit by rains and floods in the past month.

Tens of thousands of people were also affected in the neighbouring province of South Ubangi, through which the Oubangui river runs between DRC and the Central African Republic.

On the other side of the Congo river at least 50,000 people were affected by the downpours, prompting the Congo-Brazzaville government to declare a state of emergency.

On Thursday, newspaper Les Dépêches de Brazzaville reported three people had died, while on Friday residents reported a dozen deaths in the DRC’s southwestern Kasai province.

Heavy rains and landslides have also killed dozens across the wider east African region during weeks of downpours, with 29 buried by landslides in Kenya and 10 people drowned in a river in Tanzania, officials have said.

Those killed in Kenya were in their homes when they were hit in the early hours of Saturday during torrential rain in the Pokot region, 220 miles north-west of the capital Nairobi.

“We are saddened to confirm that 12 people from Tapach and Parua in Pokot South, and 17 from Tamkal in Pokot Central lost their lives,” the interior minister Fred Matiang’i said. “Our profound sympathies go to the families and friends of those who have been affected.”

Army and police helicopters have been sent, Matiang’i added, with rescue efforts delayed because roads have been cut and bridges closed after streams turned into raging torrents.

Kenya Red Cross said in a message: “Massive landslides reported in various areas of West Pokot county following heavy downpour.” Its emergency response teams had deployed to help, it added.

The West Pokot county commissioner, Apollo Okello, said two children had been pulled out alive from the smashed wreckage of their mud-covered homes. “They have been rushed to hospital,” he said.

Rescue efforts to dig out bodies continued. “The challenge we are facing is the heavy rains, but we are trying our best,” he added.

Violent downpours have displaced tens of thousands in Somalia, submerged whole towns in South Sudan and killed dozens in flash floods and landslides in Ethiopia and Tanzania too.

Close to a million people in South Sudan alone are affected with growing fears of disease and starvation.

Floods frequently hit east Africa, but scientists say they have been exacerbated by a climate phenomenon in the Indian Ocean stronger than any seen in years.

The extreme weather is blamed on the Indian Ocean dipole, a climate system defined by the difference in sea surface temperature between western and eastern areas of the ocean. The ocean off east Africa is far warmer than usual, resulting in higher evaporation resulting in rain over the continent.