Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
21 August 2007
Mogadishu — Somalia's Shabelle River that passes through Middle Shabelle province in South-Central Somalia has reportedly spilled over its bank submerging farming areas in at least two tiny villages in the province.
Nour Haji Abdulle, one of intellectual people, in the area, told Shabelle by phone that Bardale was one of two villages effected by the floods that were caused by heavy rains.
He said many farms have been destroyed by the strong flooding, which also forces hundreds of families to flee and remain homeless in other areas of the province.
He called on local authorities in Jawhar, the main town of the region to send an immediate rescuers and medical supplies to help the people effected by the downpour.
The news comes as study made by the Food Security Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSAU), the Famine Early Warning Network, and other partners, indicate that Shabelle regions in the south and Central regions of Somalia were in a state of humanitarian emergency.
Out of the 1.5 million people in need of assistance in Somalia, about 300,000 are in Middle and Lower Shabelle regions. The 1.5 million also includes around 490,000 other vulnerable people in need of aid, an estimated 325,000 persons internally displaced since April 2007 and some 400,000 persons who have been internally displaced for a protracted period.
Somalia has had no effective central government since the ouster of former dictator, Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.
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