Tropical Cyclone Hidaya has begun to hit the coasts of Kenya and Tanzania, promising to worsen flooding in the region, which has already recorded more than 400 deaths.
Tropical Cyclone Hidaya has begun to hit the coasts of Kenya and Tanzania, promising to worsen flooding in the region, which has already recorded more than 400 deaths.
Torrential rains, waves of more than two meters and violent winds, with gusts exceeding 75 kilometers per hour, began to be felt in the region, a situation that the Kenya Meteorological Department expects to worsen.
Around 400 people have died in East Africa since March and tens of thousands have been displaced by torrential rains that have caused floods and landslides, swept away homes and destroyed roads and bridges.
“Current observations suggest that Tropical Cyclone Hidaya has made landfall in Tanzania. But behind this another low pressure system is developing,” says the Kenyan department.
Meanwhile, in today’s bulletin, the Tanzania Meteorological Authority reported strong winds and heavy rainfall along the coast overnight, asking residents living in risk areas and those working near the sea to take “maximum precautions.”
The cyclone is expected to reach gusts of 165 km/h when it makes landfall, the regional climate center said.
The cyclone season in the southwestern Indian Ocean usually runs from November to April, with about a dozen storms per year.
On Friday, Kenyan President William Ruto described the weather forecasts for the country as “terrible,” which is about to face the first cyclone in its history, and indefinitely postponed the reopening of schools scheduled for Monday.
In Kenya since March, at least 210 people have died and around 100 are missing, while 165,000 people have been displaced, according to government data.
“No corner of our country has been spared from this devastation,” summarized the President.
On Thursday, the Interior Ministry ordered all people living near large rivers or “dams or reservoirs full or almost full of water” to leave those areas within 24 hours.
To the south, at least 155 people died in Tanzania due to flooding and landslides.
East Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change, and rainfall in the region this year has been amplified by El Niño, a natural weather phenomenon often associated with global warming, causing droughts in some parts of the world and heavy rains in others. .
In Burundi, at least 29 people have been killed and 175 injured since the start of the rainy season in September, according to the United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA estimates that the torrential rains hitting East Africa have already affected more than 637,000 people, 234,000 of whom have been forced to flee their homes.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that it was “particularly concerned” about the fate of thousands of displaced refugees in Burundi, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania.
By country, OCHA reports that as of Friday there were around 195,000 displaced people in Kenya, according to the country’s National Disaster Operations Centre. Burundi counts 31,200 displaced people and warns that more than 20,000 farming families have lost their crops, almost 40,000 hectares, that is, 10% of agricultural land.
“They are forced to flee once again for their lives, after their homes were razed,” said UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado Mur.
In April 2024, UNHCR launched its first Climate Resilience Fund to reinforce the need for help for refugees, displaced communities and their hosts as extreme weather events increase.
Source: Observadora
