Floods leave 112 dead in two months

pulse

May 4, 2018 10:56 AM

Flooding across Kenya triggered by weeks of torrential rain has left 112 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands of others, the Red Cross said Friday.

Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet made an appeal for $5 million (four million euros) to help those affected in 32 counties.

Since early March, "112 people have lost their lives countrywide," he told a press conference.

"About 48,177 households have been displaced so far and this translates to 260,200 people that are displaced," he said.

Gullet said over 21,000 acres (8,500 hectares) of crops had been destroyed and some 20,000 animals washed away, while more than a hundred schools had been affected, many of which remain closed.

The disaster comes after three failed rainy seasons inflicted a crippling drought that sent food prices soaring and left more than three million people requiring food aid.

pulse