Floods kill 65 in Rwanda as heavy rains pound East Africa

Floods have left 65 dead in Rwanda and heavy rains swept away scores of houses, several bridges and farms, the government said Thursday, as similar scenes played out across East Africa.

In Kenya, floods and landslides have killed nearly 200 people in the past month, while Uganda's Lake Victoria has overflown, submerging houses, a hospital and bridges and displacing thousands.

"Heavy rains that poured Wednesday night caused a number of disasters," Rwanda's ministry of emergency management said in a statement on Thursday.

"Up until midnight, 65 death cases had been registered due to floods. The rains also led to damage of infrastructure like roads, 91 houses, 5 bridges and several farms were swept away by the floors," said the statement.

In April 20 people were killed in flooding in Rwanda.

In Kenya, four teenagers drowned on Thursday after a river burst its banks, a day after the government announced 194 people had been killed due to floods and landslides since the rainy season began in April, and large areas of farmland and water infrastructure destroyed.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on Thursday wrote on Twitter that Lake Victoria was near record levels.

"Encroachers on Lake Victoria and (its) river banks should vacate before they are swallowed by the water because you're in its way" he said.

The Red Cross issued a statement Thursday saying thousands were displaced in Uganda after two rivers burst their banks, and a major hospital in western Kasese had partly been submerged by water.

Ugandan MP Alex Byarugaba from Isingiro, a border district with Tanzania, told AFP Thursday: "We lost four people after the heavy rains in last four days pounded the district. Some were buried by the flash floods which have displaced over 5,000 people".

Somalia has also experienced flooding in several areas, with six people killed in northeastern Puntland last month.

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Kenya floods have killed nearly 200 in past month: govt
Nairobi (AFP) May 6, 2020
Heavy rains in Kenya have caused floods and landslides that have left 194 dead and destroyed crops since the deluge began last month, complicating the fight against the coronavirus, the government said Wednesday. The heavy flooding comes after similarly deadly rainfall at the end of last year, and brings with it a second wave of locusts with massive swarms forming in Kenya and elsewhere in East Africa. A statement from the presidency said that people were being evacuated from flood-prone areas i ... read more