Floods displace thousands in Somalia-Ethiopia border area

Around 1,000 families have been displaced by flooding after heavy rains in an area straddling the border between Ethiopia and the self-declared independent republic of Somaliland, according to officials.

“The floods occurred in the last 24 hours. About 1,000 families were displaced, and they are with their relatives in other parts of Allaybaday and Tog-wajale districts in Gabiley region,” regional governor Said Mohamed Ahmed Aw Abdi, known as Habib, told IRIN on 3 March.

Habib said three people died in the floods which also destroyed dams used for water storage by farmers and agro-pastoralists. Hundreds of buildings in the border area, including private homes and government buildings such as customs and immigration offices have been evacuated, according to one official in the area.

“My house was about several hundred metres away from the seasonal river of Tog-Wajale, but the water reached us yesterday evening,” Wajake resident Said Abdifatah Mohamed Hassan, told IRIN by phone.

“I evacuated my three children and their mother to a relative’s family far away. While I locked the house and left, everything in the house was lost in the flood, but by Allah’s mercy we are saved,” he added.

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