Flooding puts Somali town under water

EL-WAQ, Somalia, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Flooding in Somalia has driven more than 15,000 people from their homes in a town near the border with Kenya and killed livestock, UN officials say.

Previously, the area around El-Waq had been suffering from drought. But four days of downpours were followed by a flash flood, the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Network said.

"Most of the town is under water, with people moving to higher ground around the town," Alaso Gurhan, a resident of El-Waq, said Wednesday.

Ali Hassan, a local activist, said all the surrounding hilltops had been occupied. He said the thousands displaced in El-Waq included about 900 families who had fled the capital, Mogadishu, because of fighting there.

"Hundreds of goats and sheep weakened by the drought have succumbed to the rains and the cold weather," Hassan said.