Flood-hit refugees call for help in Kenya
Source: Reuters
By Richard Lough DADAAB, Kenya, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Solomon Pile waded waist-deep through the flood water carrying his bicycle above his head, searching for higher ground after torrential rain swept away his family's makeshift shelter. "We need help," the 17-year-old Somali refugee called out, swaying unsteadily in the fast-flowing water. "We left the camp and moved into the bush, but our food has been spoiled and we are drinking the floodwater." This week the U.N. said more than 78,000 people had lost their homes to floods in northeastern Kenya's Dadaab area, and three vast refugee camps there were completely cut off. Torrential rains and floods have hit up to 1.8 million people in the Horn of Africa, driving tens of thousands from their homes and threatening to trigger epidemics, U.N. aid bodies say. Some 160,000 mostly Somalis shelter in the Dadaab camps -- Ifo, Dagahaley and Hagadera -- in shacks of twisted sticks and plastic sheets, having fled growing tensions in their homeland. On Friday, the UNHCR refugee agency had hoped to deliver emergency aid to the worst affected groups, particularly the sick and elderly. But the fast-rising waters drove them back. Four-wheel-drive vehicles became bogged down in thick mud and were left to be recovered later. Staff returned to Dadaab town on foot. More rain is forecast over the next two weeks. The U.N. is now considering using donkeys and carts, or even boats, to distribute supplies. REDIRECT WATERS Satimo Ibrahim, a 40-year-old mother of six, said things were so bad she had seen people sleeping on top of toilet blocks to escape the floods. Her family was sleeping in a crumbling kitchen, after their three-bedroom shack was swept away. "Our immediate need is to redirect the waters away from the houses that remain standing," she said. The hospital at Ifo camp was badly damaged by the floods, and some patients had to be moved on stretchers. On Friday, a mechanical digger hacked out protection dikes around Dagahaley camp as residents were called to stack sandbags around other medical centres and lift hundreds of sacks of U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) maize and sorghum onto pallets out of reach of the waters. WFP said more than 30 tonnes of food was already spoiled. UNHCR temporarily withdrew all its staff from the three camps on Friday, and encouraged residents to move to higher ground where it is preparing water points and latrines. They say they are preparing for possible typhoid, cholera and malaria outbreaks, but they have met some resistance. "We can't shift because we would be leaving all our necessities behind," said Ifo camp chairman Ahmed Aden chewing his last leaves of khat, a mild stimulant now in short supply. "What about the aid agency offices, the ration distribution centre and the hospital?"
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