UGANDA: Rains continue to wreak havoc in northern Uganda

Relief efforts underway in Uganda as floods from torrential rains have killed at least 41 people, displaced thousands more and drowned livestock across east Africa. Floods from torrential rains have killed at least 41 people, displaced thousands more, and drowned livestock across east Africa, officials said on Friday (September 14). In the worst-hit nations, at least 17 people died in Ethiopia in recent days, 15 in Rwanda, and nine in Uganda, governments and aid agencies said. Hailstorms and landslides have compounded the problem in some areas. Thousands of families have fled to flimsy shelters. The risk of water-borne diseases like cholera and malaria was growing. Experts have painted a bleak picture of a devastated region, predicting more floods in the coming weeks. In the Ugandan capital, Kampala, the Country Representative of the United Nations (U.N.) World Food Programme (WFP) Tesema Negash told Reuters that the relief organisation was trying to reach as many flood victims as possible. For weeks now the U.N. food agency has encountered difficulties in delivering food to more than 300,000 people who have been affected by the floods. Negash made an appeal for 49.2 million U.S. dollars from international donors over the coming six onths. Thousands of people have fled Uganda's Lira district after rivers which flow into the Nile burst their banks - flooding nearby villages and forcing people to evacuate with their belongings to areas of higher ground. Ugandan State Minister for Disaster Preparedness Musa Ecweru told Reuters a week of torrential rains has devastated northern Uganda. Ecweru said the rains were likely to continue into October and could spread to some parts of central Uganda.

ITN Source | September 17, 2007

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