ADDIS ABABA - At least 134 people have been killed and nearly 250,000 displaced in massive floods that have hit southeast Ethiopia since last week, taking a huge toll on livestock and agriculture, officials said Monday.
As torrential rains continued to pound portions of the country's Somali state, officials said 162 villages in 11 districts had been ravaged by raging waters of the Wabe Shebell river which burst its banks on April 23.
Twenty-one bodies were recovered in Somali state's Godie region on Sunday, bringing the toll to 134 dead and at least 247,025 others affected, most of them homeless, in the worst-affected villages, they said.
They stressed, though, that the damage had not yet been fully assessed due to the fact that the flooding had made the already remote region even more isolated and difficult to reach.
"This is not a final clear-cut situation picture," said Ramadan Hajji, the emergency relief cordinator for Somali state, 1,380 kilometers (860 miles) from Addis Ababa.
"There are areas we have not assessed due to transport problems and rising waters," he told AFP. "The deaths may still increase and so may other damage."
Officials said the flood's toll on livestock and farmland in the state had been particularly disastrous for the impoverished region where many villages rely entirely on subsistance agriculture to survive.
At least 17,205 chickens, 6,922 head of cattle, 3,957 camels and 351 donkeys were swept away by the water, along with 160 water pumps and generators, according to official statistics released by Addis Ababa.
In addition, at least 6,478 tonnes of cereals were destroyed and 2,785 hectares (6,880 hectares) of farmland submerged, they said.
Disaster relief teams have had limited success in reaching flood-affected areas and in compiling accurate accounts of damage caused by the water, which has been exacerbated by the appearance of hungry crocodiles that have devoured nearly 10 people and hampered rescue efforts, officials said.
The flooding began after days of uninterrupted rain in the highlands to the north of the affected area and hit most villages at night, taking sleeping residents by surprise.
Before the rains, the area had been repeatedly hit by drought and the dried up river bed was unable to handle the excess water, leading to flooding along almost its entire length that stretched across the border into Somalia.
05/02/2005 11:00 GMT