At least 47 people have been killed and 85 others injured in landslides caused by flooding in northern Tanzania, says a local official, with warnings the toll could rise.
Heavy rain on Saturday hit the town of Katesh, some 300km (186 miles) north of the capital Dodoma, district commissioner Janeth Mayanja said.
“Up to this [Sunday] evening, the death toll reached 47 and 85 injured,” Queen Sendiga, regional commissioner in the Manyara area of northern Tanzania, told local media.
Both warned the death toll was likely to increase. Mayanja added that many roads in the area had been blocked by mud, water and dislodged trees and stones.
Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan, in Dubai for the COP28 climate conference, sent her condolences and said she ordered the deployment of “more government efforts to rescue people”.
“We are very shocked by this event,” she said in a video message posted online by the Tanzanian Ministry of Health.
After experiencing an unprecedented drought, East Africa has been hit for weeks by torrential rain and flooding linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon.
El Nino is a naturally occurring weather pattern that originates in the Pacific Ocean and drives increased heat worldwide, bringing drought to some areas and heavy rains elsewhere.
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