By Nuzulack Dausen
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) -The death toll from floods in Tanzania following torrential rains this weekend has risen to 57, its president said on Monday, adding to hundreds of other deaths caused by extreme weather in East Africa since seasonal rains began in October.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan said in a post on social media platform X that a further 85 people were still receiving treatment in hospital.
Zuhura Yunus, a spokesperson for her office, said the floods and landslides had affected 1,150 households, or 5,600 people, with 750 acres of farmland destroyed.
Severe flooding caused by the El Nino and Indian Ocean Dipole weather phenomena has forced hundreds of thousands from their homes in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Tanzania since the rains began.
The flooding comes on the back of the worst drought to hit the region in 40 years. Dry soils are less able to absorb water, increasing the risk of flash-flooding.
Yunus said Hassan would shorten her trip to the COP28 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates to oversee the response to the incident.
“Despite all the challenges rescue work is facing from damaged roads and mud and logs filling the roads, the government is doing its best to deal with that,” Yunus said.
Queen Sendiga, commissioner of the Northern Manyara region, told reporters late on Sunday that authorities were still searching for bodies trapped in the mud.
Around 100 houses in the village of Katesh, Hanang district, were swallowed by a landslide, Sendiga said, adding that they did not know the whereabouts of people from 28 households.
Television footage showed streets turned into fast-flowing rivers of mud carrying debris past flooded houses.
Climate change is causing more intense and more frequent extreme weather events, according to climate scientists.
In response, African leaders are pushing for new global taxes and changes to international financial institutions to help fund climate change action.
In neighbouring Kenya, where floods have so far killed at least 142 people, the banks of the Voi River in the country’s south burst on Monday, the Kenya Red Cross said on X, adding its personnel were helping with rescue efforts.
(Reporting by Nuzulack Dausen; Writing by Hereward Holland and George Obulutsa;Editing by Nellie Peyton, Alexander Winning and Sharon Singleton)
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