Somalia – Floods update (UN OCHA, FEWS NET, NOAA-CPC, media) (ECHO Daily Flash of 08 June 2021)

• Following the “Gu” rainy season since late April, at least 14 districts of Somalia have been impacted by widespread floods, affecting about 400,000 people, as reported by UN OCHA. This is the result of rains in Somalia but also of heavy rains in Shabelle river catchment basin upstream in Ethiopia.
• The hardest-hit area is the Middle Shabelle Region (southern Somalia), where floods in Jowhar district have displaced 66,000 people from 27 villages, destroyed over 40,000 ha of farmland, disrupted learning in 12 schools and damaged 82% of WASH infrastructures. Additional 22,000 individuals have been displaced after the Shabelle river broke its banks in Belet Weyne Town (Hiran Region, central Somalia). In total, more than 101,300 people have been displaced across Somalia, due to floods.
• The latest Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) report indicates that most of Somalia received little to no rain in the second part of May, particularly in most of north-western and southern Somalia, where total precipitation was below average, which leads to consider that the rainy season ended earlier than usual and 2.8 million people are expected to be severely food insecure until September 2021.

Source: European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations