WHENEVER I think I’ve got problems, something like this crops up. When I was in Ethiopia in 1999 the country was in the grip of what was described as “a drought of Biblical proportions”. Now people are dying in floods. They do it tough. No wonder their athletes are so hard to beat. kk
ADDIS ABABA, April 24 - Up to 40 people have been killed by a flood in eastern Ethiopia, officials say.
Many are still hanging on to trees for dear life,'' Mohammed Admi Abdi, district administrator of West Emi in Ogaden province, said by telephone today. He said the Wabe Shabelle river had burst its banks last night after 48 hours of continuous heavy rain, flooding or washing away 35 villages in one of the most remote regions of the Horn of Africa country of more than 60 million. Government officials and voluntary organisations were trying to move the survivors by helicopter, as all roads leading to the area 700 km east of Addis Ababa were under water and impassable. The flood caught the people in 35 villages along the banks unawares,’’ Abdi said. ``Up to 40 died in their sleep while those were were awake were able to escape.’’
He said officials of the government, the United Nations and voluntary organisations were meeting in the Ogaden capital of Gode to plan relief operations.
Ethiopia, which was hit by intense droughts during the 1980s that killed nearly a million people, is in the midst of a rainy season.