JOWHAR (SD) – Over 400,000 people majority farmers have been affected by floods caused by torrential rains in 14 districts of Somalia’s Middle Shabelle and Hiiraan regions, UN said this week.

According to a statement by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the floods displaced 101,300 people from their homes. Among them are 66,000 people from Jowhar district.

“Most affected people are in the Middle Shabelle region where floods in Jowhar district have displaced 66,000 people from 27 villages, destroyed over 40,000 hectares of farmland, disrupted learning in 11 schools and damaged 82 percent of WASH infrastructures,” OCHA said in its floods update, referring to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.

The floods also destroyed 1,235 hectares of farmland in BeledWeyne town of Hiiraan region.

It said humanitarian partners have scaled up assistance, reaching at least 82,000 affected people with life-saving assistance including food, water and sanitation, hygiene, health and shelter.

Last Thursday, Somali prime minister Mohamed Hussein Roble who visited the flood affected areas in Middle Shabelle region had termed the situation as a “dire humanitarian situation.”

“Due to seasonal flooding by Shabelle River, the regional capital is completely cut off, and so are the settlements in the environs, with no way out by the road,” the PM said in a statement issued in Mogadishu after the visit.