Kenya floods leave 112 dead in two months

What you need to know:

  • The disaster comes after three failed rainy seasons inflicted a crippling drought that sent food prices soaring and left more than three million people requiring food aid.

Flooding across Kenya triggered by weeks of torrential rain has left 112 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands of others, the Red Cross said Friday.

Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet made an appeal for $5 million (four million euros) to help those affected in 32 counties.

Since early March, "112 people have lost their lives countrywide," he told a press conference.

"About 48,177 households have been displaced so far and this translates to 260,200 people that are displaced," he said.

READ:

Double curse: After drought, Kenya's Dadaab refugee camps hit by floods

Any entertainment is welcome in Dadaab, one of the biggest refugee bases in the world. An estimated 235,000 people, most of them Somalis, live a bleak life largely defined by drought, dust and destitution

Gullet said over 21,000 acres (8,500 hectares) of crops had been destroyed and some 20,000 animals washed away, while more than a hundred schools had been affected, many of which remain closed.

The disaster comes after three failed rainy seasons inflicted a crippling drought that sent food prices soaring and left more than three million people requiring food aid.