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Four people have died and six others are missing after flooding in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. This is reported by the authorities of the Nairobi district.
Local police confirmed that four bodies could be recovered from the Mathare River, while six other people are still missing. A total of 60,000 people, mostly women and children, have been “severely affected by the sudden and devastating floods that have hit the city,” local authorities said in a statement, claiming Nairobi was “on the brink of a humanitarian crisis.”
Rising waters have hit both slums – such as Mathare – and posh neighborhoods – such as Runda, where the UN’s regional headquarters are located. Several major arteries of the capital were flooded, and cars and trucks were stuck in several places. In Mathare, one of the hardest-hit areas, some residents were up to their waists in water, according to images from the Kenya Red Cross, which carried out evacuation operations there. Other images on social media showed people taking refuge on the roofs of their homes.
Senator Edwin Sifuna also says the situation in Nairobi has “reached extreme proportions” and that the district authorities are “clearly overwhelmed”. “All national emergency services must be mobilized to save lives,” it said.
Kenya, like several other East African countries, has been hit by unusual rainfall for several days, caused by the weather phenomenon El Niño. On April 18, UN emergency relief agency OCHA reported that at least 32 people had been killed and more than 40,000 displaced since the start of the rainy season in March.
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