Cyclone Ravages Somalia’s Puntland

Local government said as many as 300 people are feared dead after a deadly cyclone and heavy floods swept in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, Aljazeera.net reported on Wednesday.

Puntland authorities has described the situation as a “disaster” with entire villages destroyed, and said it was appealing for emergency international aid. Government added many people could be dead and hundreds unaccounted for as storm destroys entire villages.

In a statement, the local authorities said “Torrential rains, high wind speeds and flooding has created a state of emergency, with 300 persons feared dead, hundreds others unaccounted for, and countless livestock lost.” The statement added Many fishermen “are missing and feared dead, the storm has destroyed entire villages, homes, buildings, and boats.”

Aljazeera.net reported the death toll could not be independently verified, but weather experts from the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has confirmed flooding was severe.

Hussein Gadain, a senior FAO technical adviser, told news agencies “Given that Puntland is a semi-arid region, it rarely rains but when it does, to an extent we have seen… the impact is devastating,”

The port of Eyl, a pirate hotspots where Somali armed men have launched attacks far out into the Indian Ocean, are among of the worst affected. Aljazeera.net reported coastal destruction caused by a 2004 tsunami was widely seen as being one trigger for a surge in attacks off Somalia, peaking in January 2011 when the pirates held 736 hostages and 32 boats.

The rate of attacks, however, has fallen in the past two years, prompted partly by the posting of armed guards on boats and navy patrols, Aljazeera.net said. Pirates still hold an Omani-flagged fishing boat offshore, as well as at least six traditional wooden Yemeni fishing boats, and around 90 sailors from other boats are still held hostage onshore.

The UN World Food Programme reportedly said it is “working closely” with local authorities “to assess the needs in Puntland in the aftermath of the cyclone.”

The main tarmac road between Puntland’s capital Garowe and the key port Bossaso has been cut off by flood waters, hampering delivering of relief supplies. Authorities said
“The loaded and ready trucks cannot deliver supplies by road, as the heavy rains and flooding have rendered dirt roads to the coastal areas impassible.”

Somalia has been riven by civil war since the collapse of a central government in 1991. Puntland, which forms the northeastern tip of the Horn of Africa, has its own government, although unlike neighbouring Somaliland, it has not declared independence from Somalia, Aljazeera.net reported.

Source: Aljazeera.net