Gode - Various consignments including 3,750 blankets, medicines and jerrycans were sent to flood victims in Gode town, Somali State, secretary of the Jijiga branch office of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society said.
According to the secretary, Ato Hassin Mohammed, the reported items were sent by air to the victims stranded by the floods to highland areas of the state and to those still surrounded by floods.
Ato Hassin said plastic sheetings, tents and cooking utensils were expected to reach the flood affected areas yesterday. The consignments will be distributed among the aid recipients beginning today, according to Ato Hassin.
Meanwhile, the US funded Famine Early Warning system reported its prediction of another ten days of rain in Somalia and Ethiopia, VOA said. According to the radio's broadcast monitored here yesterday, the report blamed EL-Nino for the untimely rains.
VOA quoted Professor Fredrik Smazi, chief of the Climate Information and Prediction Centre of the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, as saying "what we have seen in Somalia and Ethiopia is the northern component of the EL-Nino event." "A lot more rain is expected in the coming weeks further hampering relief operations in the East African region," VOA quoted the chief as saying.
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Ethiopian News Age