Havoc from floods in Somaliland

AllAfrica.com via IRIN: Dozens of families were displaced and thousands of livestock killed in three days after torrential rain induced flash floods in the west of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, officials said. Most of the livestock deaths were reported in Tog-Wajale district where the mayor, Omar Aden Gazali, said at least 5,700 animals died after it rained for 72 hours.

Gazali said two people had died in the floods, more than 100 families (600 people) were displaced and homes and business premises destroyed. The mayor said most of the families who lost their livestock came from the eastern parts of Somaliland in search of pasture.

Gazali said a bridge connecting the town to neighbouring Ethiopia was inundated with water and almost destroyed. "The police started to stop people from crossing the bridge between the two sides of the town," he said. Said Mohamed Ahmed, the mayor of Wajale, on the Ethiopian side, said the floods had also affected their part of town. "We sent our teams to survey the problems caused by the rains; there is a lot of damage caused by the floods," he said….

Locator map of Somaliland by Abdullah Geelah, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons 2.5 license