Author: ITaf

Nairobi, Kenya — Kenya Airways said Monday that it would resume flights to Kinshasa after military authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo released two of its employees who were detained last month. 

The airline announced on April 29 that it would suspend flights to the DRC capital, calling the arrests “unlawful.” 

“Kenya Airways confirms that military authorities have unconditionally released our two employees who had been detained since 19 April 2024,” Kenya’s flag carrier said in a statement. “With the necessary ground support in place, we are pleased to announce that Kenya Airways will resume flights to Kinshasa on 8 May 2024.” 

Earlier, the Kenyan government had announced the release of one of the employees. 

“Deeply grateful to inform that Lydia Mbotela, KQ [Kenya Airways] manager in DRC, has just been released by the authorities in Kinshasa,” Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya’s principal secretary for foreign affairs, said on X, formerly Twitter. 

The two employees, who work at the airline’s office in Kinshasa, were arrested on April 19 by a military intelligence unit, according to Kenya Airways. 

The airline had described it as “harassment targeting Kenya Airways’ business,” while the head of a powerful parliamentary committee called it a breach of diplomatic rules. 

Kenya Airways said the employees were held allegedly because of “missing custom documentation on valuable cargo.”  

The DRC government has not commented on the allegations. 

But the airline’s CEO, Allan Kilavuka, had said it did not accept the cargo, whose contents were not specified, because of incomplete documentation. 

This cargo “was still in the baggage section being cleared by customs when the security team arrived and alleged that KQ was transporting goods without customs clearance,” he said. “All efforts to explain to the military officers that KQ had not accepted the cargo because of incomplete documentation proved futile.”  

The airline said its employees were held incommunicado in a military facility until April 23, when embassy officials and a KQ team were allowed to visit them.
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Nairobi, Kenya — The United States Agency for International Development last week launched a $6 million program to support small businesses and financial institutions in northern Kenya that are looking to implement climate-smart practices and enhance their resilience to climate-related challenges. The region suffers from recurring droughts; when it does rain, it often floods and causes people to lose their livelihoods.

Residents of 10 northern Kenyan counties heavily depend on their livestock for food and income. Over the years, alternating periods of drought and floods have killed animals, pastures and crops, leaving millions in need of humanitarian assistance.

USAID recently set aside $38 million in loans and investments to build resilience among small businesses in these arid and semi-arid regions. The $6 million investment is part of the larger program.

Abubakar Aidarus is the head of Solargen, an organization that provides power sources and irrigation tools to farmers in Garissa and Wajir counties. Solargen received $500,000 from USAID last year.

Aidarus said the new investment has helped his business reach more places and people.

“We are from this area. We understand that the services are needed, and they are excluded from the financial systems and the grid as well,” Aidarus said. “There is no access to energy. Being able to get this investment first gave us the opportunity to put up and the courage to move to Wajir and establish an operation there. It gave us an opportunity to turn fewer customers away.”

Venny Mayaka works with a nongovernmental organization that implements the USAID Kuza program in northern Kenya. Kuza is the Swahili word for nurture.

Mayaka said USAID will address the community’s most urgent needs in managing the impact of climate change in their homes.

“USAID KUZA is coming in to bridge the gap in terms of providing access to financial services but also providing incentives in form of financing, catalytic financing,” Mayaka said. “This financing goes into [addressing] the missing links in terms of provision of water, provision of technical assistance to some of the clients, providing the access to finance but also providing some of the services to the communities. And this is cascaded down to the communities.”

Aidarus said the financial support his company received enabled it to support its customers and give them more time to repay the loans.

“Within 18 months they’re able to take full advantage of the resource that they have, which is the farm, and be able to pay us back and continue with the system,” Aidarus said. “So that really increases their ability to produce.”

For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Aidarus added, having constant, reliable and affordable power increases their income.

Mayaka said USAID wants to finance people and businesses attempting to overcome climate change issues.

“We want to see a scale up of the number of SMEs reached in terms of climate finance investments, best practices in environmental conservation and innovations towards addressing aspects of climate change,” Mayaka said. “We’d want to see more micro and small enterprises reached through the financial institutions and we also wish to see more products developed that are agile to address some of the challenges.”

USAID said it is developing a digital tool that allows data entry and captures data points about reducing carbon emissions, energy access and financial inclusion in its clients’ funds.

The agency says the tool will ensure that the investments align with its climate change objectives.
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Yaounde — Chad’s presidential election concludes Monday with civilians going to the polls, a day after members of the military cast their ballots. Transitional President General Mahamat Idriss Deby is facing nine challengers, including his current prime minister. The election, designed to end three years of a military government, has been peaceful so far. However, there is tension over a ban on taking pictures of election result sheets at polling stations.

Hundreds of people started arriving at polling stations in Chad’s capital N’djamena as early as 5:30 am local time.

Among the voters at the University of N’djamena was 29-year-old student Abdel Koura. He says he came out early to vote because he wants a president that will bring peace and provide jobs for youths who are unemployed after completing their education.

Koura says voting is his civic right. He says he is calling on all civilians, especially youths, to come out in huge numbers and vote for their leader in peace. He says he is also pleading with Chad’s transitional government to avoid chaos by ensuring that the elections are transparent and free and the winner would be who civilians have voted for.

Early voting was peaceful. However, Chad’s National Election Management Agency, known as ANGE, said that several thousand polling stations opened late due to what they call logistical difficulties.

Chad’s transitional president General Mahamat Idriss Deby voted in N’djamena’s second district and pleaded with civilians to go out en masse and perform their civic duty of voting for the person who will manage Chad’s affairs for the next five years.

ANGE says 8.2 million people are registered to vote. It says Chad’s military has been deployed to protect voters’ safety in over 26,500 polling stations.

Chad says over 2,500 national and international observers from 120 groups are accredited to monitor the elections. It says applications from another 60 groups were rejected for not respecting the country’s laws.

Cyrille Nguiegang Ntchassep is the spokesperson for observers from the six-nation Central African Economic and Monetary Commission. He has concerns that peace will not hold.

He says perceivable tensions over a ban on filming or taking photos of result sheets in polling stations and publishing them on social media and radio and television are likely to degenerate into violent clashes because civilians think that the central African state’s elections management body is controlled by Deby who created it. Ntchassep says he does not understand why Chad is reluctant to proclaim election results in a day or two as was the case in Senegal’s March 24 presidential polls.

Opposition and civil society groups, including the Transformers Party of Deby’s main challenger Succces Masra, said they planned to photograph the election result sheets and distribute them to the international community. They say the move is to prevent ANGE from rigging the elections in favor of Deby.

Tahir Oloy Hassan is ANGE’s spokesperson. Hassan says ANGE is a permanent, independent and impartial body that does not receive orders from any state authority including Deby.

He says the ban on filming and taking photos of result sheets and prohibition of media organs from having access to some polling stations and sensitive areas is to reduce tensions that may arise from misinformation and manipulation by people who want to see Chad in chaos.

He said claims by opposition candidates that Chad’s military was instructed to vote for Deby when they went to the polls on Sunday are unfounded.

ANGE says it has up to May 21 to publish provisional results and only Chad’s Constitutional Council has the powers to proclaim definitive results.

The elections are design to end three years of transition that followed the death of Idriss Deby Itno in 2021.

Chad’s opposition and civil society says the younger Deby’s rule was marked by political tensions including October 2022 pro-democracy protests during which the central African state’s security forces killed at least 50 people, injured 300 and arrested several hundred others.
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N’DJAMENA, Chad — Chadians go to the polls on Monday three years after their military leader seized power, in the first presidential election in Africa’s Sahel region since a wave of coups.

Analysts say Mahamat Idriss Deby, who seized power the day rebels killed his long-ruling father Idriss Deby in April 2021, is most likely to win, although his chief opponent has been drawing larger-than-expected crowds on the campaign trail.

Deby has promised to bolster security, strengthen the rule of law and increase electricity production.

The vote coincides with a temporary withdrawal of U.S. troops from Chad, an important Western ally in a region of West and Central Africa courted by Russia and wracked by jihadism.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 5 p.m., with some 8.5 million people registered to vote.

Soldiers began early voting on Sunday.

Provisional results are expected by May 21 and final results by June 5. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the votes, a run-off will be held on June 22.

Since replacing his father at the helm of the oil-producing Central African country, Deby has remained close with former colonial power and longtime ally France.

While other junta-ruled Sahel countries including Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have told Paris and other Western powers to withdraw and turned to Moscow for support, Chad remains the last Sahel state with a substantial French military presence.

The U.S., however, announced a temporary withdrawal of at least some troops last month, saying it would continue with a review of security operations after the election.

Opposition concerns

Monday’s vote pits Deby against his prime minister Succes Masra, previously a political opponent who fled into exile in 2022 but was allowed back a year later. Also running are former prime minister Albert Pahimi Padacke and seven other candidates.

Yaya Dillo, an opposition politician who had been expected to run against Deby despite coming from the same clan, was shot and killed in the capital N’Djamena on Feb. 28, the day the election date was announced.

Padacke has accused Masra of collaborating with Deby. But Masra has attracted large crowds to his own rallies.

Some opposition members and civil society groups have called for a boycott, citing concerns about possible vote-rigging.

That has raised fears of potential violence.

“This presidential election is of capital importance for the country because an entire people aspires for change,” said Baniara Yoyana, a former minister and magistrate.

“The process must be conducted with transparency to avoid any risk of confrontation.”

One Deby supporter, however, said he expected no problems.

“We want the election to go well and peacefully,” said Abdelkhader Sougui, a 28-year-old student.

“My wish is to go out and vote the morning of May 6 to confirm our victory… in the first round.”
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Niamey, Niger — Several gold mines in northern Niger managed by a Chinese company were ordered to temporarily close after dozens of animals died from drinking wastewater, local authorities told AFP on Sunday.

Herders around the town of Tabelot had pointed to Sahara SARL’s mines as the only explanation for their animals’ deaths, saying the region was not suffering from drought or any epidemics.

“We counted 24 dead over two days and at the end of April we finally realized that the slaughter was being caused by harmful products in the water the mines were rejecting,” said Youssaf Houssa, the chief of Tamannit, one of the affected villages.

Almou Akoli, who lives in Fasso, another village, said he lost 16 animals while some of his “neighbors cannot keep track of how many they have lost.”  

China’s Sahara SARL started mining gold in January in the middle of grazing grounds where there are hardly any natural waterholes.  

Following a visit Friday by police investigators, Niger’s Ministry of Mines ordered the temporary closure of at least four of the mining sites, according to the sources.

“The Chinese have suspended work, and we are monitoring our animals,” said Houssa.

Private local newspaper Air Info said an official report confirmed that “the catastrophe” was caused by chemical products used in the mines that threaten the water table in what is already a hostile environment for animal husbandry.  

French company Orano (formerly Areva), which has been extracting uranium in northern Niger for more than 40 years, is regularly accused by NGOs of polluting the environment.   
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Some residents of Nairobi’s suburbs are up in arms over what they say is illegal construction of high-rise buildings in their neighborhoods, mainly by Chinese developers. Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi. Camera and video editing by Amos Wangwa.
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Nairobi — Kenya said Sunday that the death toll from weeks of devastating rains and floods had risen to 228 and warned that there was no sign of a let-up in the crisis.

While Kenya and neighboring Tanzania escaped major damage from a tropical cyclone that weakened after making landfall on Saturday, the government in Nairobi said the country continued to endure torrential downpours and the risk of further floods and landslides.

In western Kenya, the River Nyando burst its banks in the early hours of Sunday, engulfing a police station, school, hospital and market in the town of Ahero in Kisumu County, police said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties but local police said water levels were still rising and that the main bridge outside Kisumu on the highway to Nairobi was submerged.

Weeks of heavier than usual seasonal rains, compounded by the El Nino weather pattern, have wreaked chaos in many parts of East Africa, a region highly vulnerable to climate change.

More than 400 people have been killed and several hundred thousand uprooted from their homes in several countries as floods and mudslides swamp houses, roads and bridges.

“It’s a serious situation and we should not take it lightly,” Kenyan government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said at a briefing on the crisis on Sunday.

‘Concerns of wider humanitarian crisis’

Across the border, the Tanzania Meteorological Authority declared that Tropical Cyclone Hidaya, which had threatened to pile on more misery, had “completely lost its strength” after making landfall on Mafia Island on Saturday.

“Therefore, there is no further threat of Tropical Cyclone ‘Hidaya’ in our country,” it said.

Tanzania remains one of the countries worst hit by the floods, with 155 people dead since early April.

In Kenya, Mwaura said while the cyclone had weakened, it had caused strong winds and waves on the coast and heavy rains were likely to intensify from later Sunday.

One fisherman had perished and another was missing, he added.

Across the nation, the disaster has claimed the lives of 228 people since March with 72 still missing, according to government figures.

More than 212,000 people have been displaced, with Mwuara saying many were “forcibly or voluntarily” evacuated.

The government has ordered anyone living near major rivers or dams to leave the area or face “mandatory evacuation for their safety,” with many dams or reservoirs threatening to overflow.

Mwaura also warned of the risk of waterborne diseases, with one case of cholera reported as well as incidents of diarrhea.

Jagan Chapagain, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said on X on Saturday that forecasts of more rains raised “serious concerns about a wider humanitarian crisis.”

The Kenyan government has been accused of being unprepared and slow to respond to the crisis despite weather warnings, with the main opposition Azimio party calling for it to be declared a national disaster.

President William Ruto said in an address to the nation on Friday that the weather picture remained “dire,” blaming the calamitous cycle of drought and floods on a failure to protect the environment.

In the deadliest single incident in Kenya, 58 people perished when a dam burst on Monday near Mai Mahiu in the Rift Valley north of Nairobi, the interior ministry said.

Several dozen remain missing.

Rescuers are also hunting for 13 people still missing after a boat capsized in Tana River County, killing seven, the ministry said. 
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Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Tanzania said a cyclone that made landfall on Saturday has lost its strength and was no longer a threat to the country.   

Tropical Cyclone Hidaya had triggered heavy rains and winds as it rolled towards Tanzania and neighboring Kenya, countries already battered by torrential downpours and floods that have left more than 400 people dead across East Africa in recent weeks.  

In a statement published early Sunday on X, the Tanzania Meteorological Authority said that Hidaya had “completely lost its strength” after making landfall on Mafia Island in the Indian Ocean on Saturday.   

“Therefore, there is no further threat of Tropical Cyclone ‘Hidaya’ in our country,” it added.   

Beaches on the Indian Ocean coast were deserted, shops were closed and marine transport suspended in the Zanzibar archipelago as the country braced for the cyclone.   

As it approached, the storm had caused much heavier rainfall than normal in coastal areas but no casualties or damage were reported.   

At least 155 people have died in Tanzania as heavier-than-usual torrential rains linked to the El Nino weather pattern triggered floods and landslides last month.   

In neighboring Kenya, which had also taken precautions for the cyclone, a total of 210 people have been killed in flood-related incidents. 

 
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NAIROBI, Kenya — When Ademola Adesina founded a startup to provide solar and battery-based power subscription packages to individuals and businesses in Nigeria in 2015, it was a lot harder to raise money than it is today.

Climate tech was new in Africa, the continent was a fledgling destination for venture capital money, there were fewer funders to approach and less money was available, he said.

It took him a year of “running around and scouring” his networks to raise his first amount — just under $1 million — from VC firms and other sources. “Everything was a learning experience,” he said.

But the ecosystem has since changed, and Adesina’s Rensource Energy has raised about $30 million over the years, mostly from VC firms. 

Funding for climate tech startups in Africa from the private sector is growing, with businesses raising more than $3.4 billion since 2019. But there’s still a long way to go, with the continent requiring $277 billion annually to meet its climate goals for 2030.

Experts say to unlock financing and fill this gap, African countries need to address risks like currency instability that they say reduce investor appetite, while investors need to expand their scope of interest to more climate sectors like flood protection, disaster management and heat management, and to use diverse funding methods.

Still, the investment numbers for the climate tech sector — which includes businesses in renewable energy, carbon removal, land restoration and water and waste management — are compelling: Last year, climate tech startups on the continent raised $1.04 billion, a 9% increase from the previous year and triple what they raised in 2019, according to the funding database Africa: The Big Deal. That was despite a decline in the amount of money raised by all startups in total on the continent last year.

That matters because climate tech requires experimentation, and VC firms that provide money to nascent businesses are playing an essential role by giving climate tech startups risk capital, said Adesina. “In the climate space, a lot of things are uncertain,” he said.

The money raised by climate tech startups last year was more than a third of all funds raised by startups in Africa in 2023, placing climate tech second to fintech, a more mature sector.

Venture capital is typically given to businesses with substantial risk but great long-term growth potential. Startups use it to expand into new markets and to get products and services on the market.

Venture capitalists “can take risks that other people cannot take, because our business model is designed to have failures,” said Brian Odhiambo, a Lagos-based partner at Novastar Ventures, an Africa-focused investor. “Not everything has to succeed. But some will, and those that do will succeed in a massive way.”

That was the case for Adetayo Bamiduro, co-founder of MAX, formerly Metro Africa Xpress, which makes electric two- and three-wheelers and electric vehicle infrastructure in Nigeria and has raised just under $100 million since it was founded in 2015.

Adetayo said venture capitalists “are playing a catalytic role that is extremely essential.”

“We all know that in order to really decarbonize our economies, investments have to be made. And it’s not trivial investment,” he said.

The funds can also bridge the gap between traditional and non-traditional sectors, said Kidus Asfaw, co-founder and CEO of Kubik, a startup that turns difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into durable, low-carbon building material. His company, which operates in Kenya and Ethiopia, has raised around $5.2 million since it was launched in 2021.

He cites waste management and construction as examples of traditional sectors that can connect with startups like his.

“There’s so much innovation in these spaces that can transform them over time,” he said. “VCs are accelerating that pathway to transforming them.”

Besides venture capital, other investments by private equity firms, syndicates, venture builders, grant providers and other financial institutions are actively financing climate initiatives on the continent.

But private sector financing in general lags far behind that of public financing, which includes funds from governments, multilaterals and development finance institutions.

From 2019 to 2020, private sector financing represented only 14% of all of Africa’s climate finance, according to a report by the Climate Policy Initiative, much lower than in regions such as East Asia and Pacific at 39%, and Latin America and the Caribbean at 49%.

The low contribution in Africa is attributed to the investors putting money in areas they’re more familiar with, like renewable energy technology, with less funding coming in for more diverse initiatives, said Sandy Okoth, a capital market specialist for green finance at FSD Africa, one of the commissioners of the CPI study.

“The private sector feels this (renewable energy technology) is a more mature space,” he said. “They understand the funding models.”

Technology for adapting to climate change, on the other hand, is “more complex,” he said.

One startup working in renewable energy is the Johannesburg-based Wetility, which last year secured funding of $48 million — mostly from private equity — to expand its operations.

The startup provides solar panels for homes and businesses and a digital management system that allows users to remotely manage power usage, as it tries to solve the problems of energy access and reliability in southern Africa.

“Private sector financing in African climate is still rather low,” said founder and CEO Vincent Maposa. “But there’s visible growth. And I believe that over the next decade or so, you’ll start to see those shifts.”

Investors are also starting to understand the economic benefits of adapting to climate change and solutions as they have returns on investment, said Hetal Patel, Nairobi-based director of investments at Mercy Corps Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on startups building solutions for climate adaptation and financial resilience.

“We’re starting to build a very strong business case for adaptation investors and make sure that private capital flows start coming in,” he said.

Maelis Carraro, managing partner at Catalyst Fund, a Nairobi-based VC fund and accelerator that funds climate adaptation solutions, urged more diverse funding, such as that which blends private and public sector funding. The role of public financing, she said, should be to de-risk the private sector and attract more private sector capital into financing climate initiatives.

“We’re not gonna go far enough with just the public funding,” she said. “We need the private sector and the public sector to work together to unlock more financing. And in particular looking beyond just a few industries where the innovation is writ large.”
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LOME, Togo — Togo’s ruling party has won 108 out of 113 seats in parliament, according to the final provisional results of last month’s legislative election announced on Friday.

The sweeping majority secured by President Faure Gnassingbe’s UNIR party follows the approval of controversial constitutional reforms by the outgoing parliament that could extend his 19-year rule.

The new charter adopted in March also introduced a parliamentary system of government, meaning the president will be elected by parliament instead of by universal suffrage.

Opposition parties were hoping to gain seats in the April 29 vote to enable them to challenge the UNIR party after they boycotted the last legislative poll and left it effectively in control of parliament.

The election had been delayed twice because of a backlash from some opposition parties who called the constitutional changes a maneuver to allow Gnassingbe to rule for life.

Constitutional amendments unanimously approved in a second parliamentary vote earlier in April shortened presidential terms to four years from five with a two-term limit.

This does not take into account the time spent in office, which could enable Gnassingbe to stay in power until 2033 if he is re-elected when his mandate expires in 2025. 
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MOLEPOLOLE, Botswana — At least 44 people who died in a horrific bus crash during Easter weekend in South Africa were laid to rest in neighboring Botswana on Saturday.

About 5,000 mourners clad in black gathered in the Botswana village of Molepolole to pay their last respects nearly a month after the bus crash that claimed the lives of everybody on board except one 8-year-old child.

The bus driver, Ogaufi Noonyane, was buried separately in the village of Thamaga, about 40 kilometers away.

The victims were travelling to an Easter pilgrimage of the Zion Christian Church, one of the biggest churches in southern Africa, when their bus plunged about 50 meters from a bridge near Mokopane village in South Africa’s northern province of Limpopo.

The accident was a tragic reminder of how deadly South Africa’s roads become during the Easter period, when millions crisscross the country during the long holiday weekend.

The mass funeral followed the repatriation of the victims’ remains to their home country of Botswana.

“We stand here with devastated hearts,” said Limpopo provincial minister of health Phophi Ramathuba, who was among the South African dignitaries who attended the funeral.

Atlang Siako, the sole survivor, was transported back home to Botswana after receiving medical attention in South Africa.

Last month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Botswana counterpart Mokgweetsi Masisi visited the scene of the crash, where they laid wreaths and paid their respects to the deceased. 
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JUNA, South Sudan — Following an appeal from the United Nations, South Sudan removed recently imposed taxes and fees that had triggered suspension of U.N. food airdrops. Thousands of people in the country depend on aid from the outside. 

The U.N. earlier this week urged South Sudanese authorities to remove the new taxes, introduced in February. The measures applied to charges for electronic cargo tracking, security escort fees and fuel. 

In its announcement Friday, the government said it was keeping charges on services rendered by firms contracted by the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. 

“These companies are profiting … (and) are subjected to applicable tax,” Finance Minister Awow Daniel Chuang said. 

There was no immediate comment from the U.N. on when the airdrops could resume. 

Earlier, the U.N. Humanitarian Affairs Agency said the pausing of airdrops had deprived 60,000 people who live in areas inaccessible by road of desperately needed food in March, and that their number is expected to rise to 135,000 by the end of May. 

The U.N. said the new measures would have increased the mission’s monthly operational costs to $339,000. The U.N. food air drops feed over 16,300 people every month. 

At the United Nations in New York, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the taxes and charges would also impact the nearly 20,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, “which is reviewing all of its activities, including patrols, the construction of police stations, schools and health care centers, as well as educational support.” 

An estimated 9 million people out of 12.5 million people in South Sudan need protection and humanitarian assistance, according to the U.N. The country also has seen an increase in the number of people fleeing the war in neighboring Sudan between the rival military and paramilitary forces, further complicating humanitarian assistance to those affected by the internal conflict. 
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GENEVA — The World Meteorological Organization warns that Tropical Cyclone Hidaya, which is projected to make landfall in Tanzania and Kenya this weekend, threatens to worsen the humanitarian crisis triggered by torrential rains in these and other heavily flooded countries in East Africa.

“Hidaya is the first documented system to have reached tropical cyclone status in this part of the world. We are not talking about Sudan. We are talking about lower and East Africa,” WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis told journalists in Geneva on Friday.

“It is historically significant. It is also going to have a very big impact, and specifically on Tanzania, where the ground is already absolutely soddened. Tanzania, which has suffered flooding, is about to get hit with more heavy rains falling … from this system.

“And the moisture in this tropical cyclone will also impact Kenya, where there is also very, very bad flooding,” she said, noting that “climate change was supercharging extreme weather.”

El Nino, which sparked heavy rains and severe flooding sweeping East Africa, is waning. Despite this, the WMO says this weather event still carries a big punch and is leading to more heavy rainfall, devastating floods and landslides in the East African region.

While casualty figures continue to rise, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports this disaster so far has killed more than 400 people. This includes at least 210 in Kenya, more than 150 in Tanzania and others in Burundi, Rwanda and Somalia.

OCHA reports heavy rains and floods in these five countries have affected more than 637,000 people, including 234,000 who are displaced. It says governments and humanitarian agencies are still assessing the damage and destruction of infrastructure, which is extensive.

“In terms of economic losses, it is still too early to say. When you look at the images of bridges and roads being swept away, it is going to be immense,” said Nullis. “The loss of livestock, the disruption of agriculture. It is a huge, huge investment.”

In an address to his nation Friday, Kenyan President William Ruto outlined a series of measures to deal with this emergency, noting that no corner of the country “has been spared from this havoc.”

“Sadly, we have not seen the last of this perilous period, as this situation is expected to escalate,” he said. “Meteorological reports paint a dire picture. The rains will persist, increasing both in duration and intensity for the rest of this month and possibly after.”

While all those caught in this disastrous event are suffering immense hardships, the U.N. refugee agency expresses particular concern about the welfare of thousands of refugees and other displaced people “being forced to escape once again for their lives after their homes were washed away.”

“In Kenya, nearly 20,000 people in the Dadaab refugee camps, which host over 380,000 refugees, have been displaced due to the rising water levels,” said Olga Sarrado Mur, UNHCR spokesperson.

“Many of them are among those who arrived in the past couple of years after severe drought in neighboring Somalia. Some 4,000 people are currently sheltering in six schools with facilities that have been extensively damaged,” she said.

She noted that many of the tens of thousands of refugees in Tanzania, Burundi, and other hard-hit countries in the region have had to relocate multiple times as water levels continue to rise. She said many people are struggling to find shelter, to pay the rent, to earn enough money to feed themselves and their families.

“Climate change is making many parts of the world, especially in fragile regions like East Africa and the Horn of Africa, increasingly uninhabitable,” said Sarrado Mur.

“Storms are more devastating. Wildfires have become commonplace. Floods and droughts are intensifying. Some of these impacts are irreversible and threaten to continue worsening, and displaced people are bearing the brunt of the impact,” she said.

The WMO reports early warning systems are critical in saving lives before natural disasters strike. It says these systems are more crucial than ever to protect people from the extreme weather conditions stemming from human-induced climate change.

“So, on tropical cyclones, we do have very, very good warnings these days in most parts of the world that enable evacuations to take place,” said Nullis, underscoring that early warning systems enable “what we call anticipatory action, which is sort of prepositioning by humanitarian agencies of relief supplies.”

“Thanks to such actions, we have prevented a great loss of life in many regions of the world,” she said.

However, UNHCRs Sarrado Mur observed that “many of the preparations resulting from early warnings often do not reach the most vulnerable communities, including refugees or other displaced communities, which often are in areas that are more exposed to these climate hazards.”

She emphasized the importance of providing funding to vulnerable peoples and the communities hosting them, “so they can be equipped and be prepared, and so they can adapt to this new situation which is unfortunately the new reality.”
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NAIROBI, Kenya — The torrential rains and deadly floods that have hit Kenya since March have been some of the most catastrophic in the country in recent years.

At least 169 people have died due to the heavy rains, with at least 91 missing, according to the latest government figures.

In the most tragic single event, at least 48 people were killed on Monday after water blew through a blocked river tunnel under a railway line in southwestern Kenya, causing a flash flood. The rain has displaced more than 190,000 people and damaged roads and other infrastructure.

The devastating rains are a result of a mix of factors, including the country’s seasonal weather patterns, human-caused climate change as well as natural weather phenomena.

Here’s how they combined to create the deadly deluge.

What is Kenya’s ‘long rains’ season?

Kenya and some other parts of eastern Africa have two main rainfall periods: the “long rains” season of March to May, and the “short rains” season of October to December.

The “long rains” season is when most of the country’s average annual rainfall occurs. It’s often characterized by torrential rains, and sometimes goes up to June.

In its forecast for this year’s “long rains” season, the Kenya Meteorological Department predicted above-average rainfall in many parts of the country, with occasional storms in some. It also warned of flash floods, landslides, mudslides and other impacts.

Last year’s “short rains” season was characterized by severe storms in many parts of the country, particularly in November. Lamu, Mombasa and Garissa counties received nearly three times their long-term average rainfall, according to the meteorological department.

Why is the rain so intense this time?

The frequency, patterns and intensity of rainfall in Kenya are influenced by naturally occurring climate systems like the Indian Ocean Dipole.

The Indian Ocean Dipole is a swinging of sea surface temperatures that makes the western Indian Ocean warmer than average then colder than average than those of the eastern Indian Ocean. It has positive, neutral and negative phases.

The positive phase causes heavy rainfall in areas west of the Indian Ocean, such as Kenya, and droughts in Indonesia and Australia.

While many people have linked the current floods to the naturally occurring El Nino weather phenomenon, research shows that the climate event has little influence on rainfall over East Africa during the “long rains” season, said Joyce Kimutai, research associate at Imperial College London.

El Nino is the warming of the ocean over the Pacific Ocean, which changes the routes for storms and it can cause heavy rainfall in some parts of the world and droughts in others.

But in Kenya’s case, it’s highly likely that the positive Indian Ocean Dipole and climate change explain the ongoing flood-inducing rainfall, she said.

Warmer oceans caused by the hotter atmosphere increase evaporation, and air holding more moisture can produce more intense rainfall.

In an analysis in December last year, Kimutai and colleagues from World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists that analyze whether climate change played a role in extreme weather, found that human-caused climate change had made last year’s “short rains” season in Kenya and other parts of eastern Africa up to two times more intense.

When will the ‘long rains’ end?

It’s become difficult to predict long-term weather in Kenya in recent years, as the onset and duration of dry and wet seasons increasingly change.

The Kenya Meteorological Department expects the “long rains” season to continue into June.

In its latest seven-day weather forecast, which it released Monday, the department said it expects rainfall to continue in several parts of the country, with heavy downpour likely to occur in six regions, as well as flooding in low-lying areas and landslides in steep slopes. 
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NAIROBI, KENYA — Torrential rains that caused widespread flooding and landslides across Kenya in recent weeks, killing at least 210 people, are forecast to worsen over the rest of this month, President William Ruto said Friday.

The floods have wreaked havoc, destroying homes, roads, bridges and other infrastructure across Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy. The death toll exceeds that from floods triggered by the El Nino weather phenomenon late last year.

“Sadly, we have not seen the last of this perilous period, as the situation is expected to escalate. Meteorological reports paint a dire picture,” Ruto said on Kenyan television. “Kenya may face its first-ever cyclone.”

Cyclone Hidaya is expected to make landfall in Tanzania, Kenya’s southern neighbor, on Saturday, bringing with it waves almost eight meters high and 165-kph winds, the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre said.

Floods have killed more than 160 people in Tanzania since the beginning of April, Tanzania’s government spokesperson Mobhare Matinyi said.

“This cyclone, named Hidaya, that could hit anytime now, is predicted to cause torrential rain, strong winds and powerful and dangerous waves,” Ruto said.

Earlier this week, Ruto ordered those living in landslide-prone areas to leave for safer ground.

The government has asked people living near 178 dams and water reservoirs, now close to overflowing, as well as those in informal settlements close to rivers and streams, to evacuate.

Ruto said the reopening of all schools for the upcoming term, which was meant to start this week, would be postponed until further notice.

The Nairobi government has set up 115 camps to host people displaced by the flooding, and is working closely with donors and humanitarian organizations to provide food and non-food supplies to those affected, he said.

Opposition leaders and rights groups have criticized Ruto’s administration for its response to the disaster.

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch accused authorities of failing to put in place a timely national response plan, despite warnings from the Kenya Meteorological Department a year ago about the likely impact of flooding caused by El Nino. 
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Kano, Nigeria — Gunmen from criminal gangs killed 25 people when they raided four villages in northwestern Nigeria in reprisals over military offensives on their hideouts, a local security official said Friday.

The attacks on Thursday took place in Katsina State, one of the regions in northwest Nigeria hit by armed gangs known locally as bandits who carry out mass kidnappings for ransom and looting raids on villages.

Bandit militias stormed the villages of Unguwar Sarki, Gangara, Tafi and Kore in Sabuwa district late on Thursday, opening fire on residents, said Nasiru Babangida, Katsina state internal security commissioner.

“Twenty-five people were killed in the attacks on the four communities, 19 of them in Unguwar Sarki village alone,” Babangida told local radio.

Several residents were injured while others were kidnapped by the criminals, he said.

“Most of those killed were vigilantes who came out to confront the bandits.”

Many communities in northwest Nigeria have formed self-defense vigilante forces to fight off bandits in remote areas with little state presence, and the two sides are locked in a spiral of tit-for-tat killings and reprisals.

The bandits raided the villages in response to ongoing military offensives against their camps in the area and in neighboring Kaduna state where they have suffered a large number of casualties, Babangida said.

“The attacks were in retaliation for the aerial bombings of their camps in Katsina and Kaduna states that have killed more than 200 of them,” he said.

The gangs who maintain camps in vast forests straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states have made headlines for mass kidnappings of students from schools in recent years.

Bandits have no ideological leaning and are motivated by financial gains but there has been concern from analysts and officials over their increasing alliance with jihadists waging a 15-year armed rebellion in the northeast of Nigeria.  
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