According to Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, at least 155 people have perished in Tanzania as a result of landslides and flooding brought on by El Nino-related torrential rains.
He reported to the legislature that roughly 200,000 people had been impacted and that numerous regions of the nation had suffered severe devastation, including the destruction of homes, infrastructure, and agriculture.
East Africa, a region already plagued by frequent climate shocks, frequently suffers catastrophic results from El Nino events.
Thirteen people have died in flash floods that struck Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, this week, while months of nonstop rain have forced 100,000 people from their homes in Burundi.
“The heavy El Nino rains, accompanied by strong winds, floods, and landslides in various parts of the country, have caused significant damage,” Majaliwa told parliament in Tanzania’s capital Dodoma.
“These include loss of life, destruction of crops, homes, citizens’ property, and infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and railways,” he added.
“As a result… more than 51,000 households and 200,000 people were affected, with 155 fatalities; approximately 236 individuals were injured, and over 10,000 houses were affected to varying degrees.”
In late 2016, as the region was beginning to recover from its worst drought in forty years, over three hundred individuals lost their lives due to heavy rainfall and flooding in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia.
Between October 1997 and January 1998, almost 6,000 people died in five nations in the region as a result of severe flooding.
