At least 31 people have died in floods caused by heavy rains in Somalia, Information Minister Daud Aweis said on Sunday.
Some 500,000 people have also been forced to flee their flooded homes. Aweis said another 1.2 million people could be affected by the disaster and the death toll may rise.
Since the beginning of November, Somalia has been battered by relentless rains, with torrents of water flooding homes and farmland.
The greatest damage was reported in the Gedo region in the south and the Hiran region in the center of the country, where the Shabelle River burst its banks and washed away houses in the town of Beledweyne.
According to OCHA, the situation had been exacerbated by the combined effects of two climate phenomena, El Nino and the Indian Ocean Dipole — a climate system defined by the difference in sea surface temperature between the western and eastern parts of the ocean.
