At least 47 people killed, scores hurt in Tanzania floods

At least 47 people were killed and 85 others injured by severe flooding and landslides in northern Tanzania, local officials said Sunday.

The town of Katesh was hit with heavy rain on Saturday, they were quoted as saying by The Guardian. District Commissioner Janeth Mayanja said roads had been blocked by mud and water, ripping up trees and stones and sweeping livestock away.

“Up to this evening, the death toll reached 47 and 85 injured,” Queen Sendiga, regional commissioner in the Manyara area of northern Tanzania, told local media. That death toll would most likely increase, she and Mayanja said.

Infrastructure and crops were also damaged in the onslaught, BBC News reported. The disaster took place near Mount Hanang, prompting President Samia Suluhu Hassan to send national security forces to support rescue efforts.

This year has been particularly bad for flooding, BBC News noted, partly due to El Nino. Hundreds of people in Kenya and Somalia have also been killed in flooding over the past several weeks, Reuters reported. The rains have washed out roads and inundated towns all over East Africa, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced. The weeks of torrential rain and devastating floods come after a period of unprecedented drought, noted Agence France-Presse.

“We are very shocked by this event,” Hassan said in a video message from the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, according to Reuters.

With News Wire Services