Reports have confirmed that flooding have continued to affect many areas in Tanzania, including the Geita Region, where floodwaters killed one person recently, according to Climate Prediction Center’s Africa Hazards Outlook For USAID / FEWS-NET.
In Burundi, the past weeks’ abundant and above-average rainfall has led tributaries to the Lake Tanganyika to overflow, flooding maize and bean crops in the lowland areas of the country, the 21 December – 27 December 2023 report highlighted.
During the outlook period, moderate to locally heavy rainfall is forecast in southern and eastern Kenya, potentially causing flooding in the region. Light rainfall is expected in southern Ethiopia and southern Somalia. Farther south, heavy rainfall is forecast to continue in eastern DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, and most places in Tanzania, which heightens risks for flooding and landslides in the region.
During mid-December, while dry conditions were observed in southeastern Ethiopia, northern Kenya, and most areas in southern Somalia, scattered moderate rainfall was observed in southern Kenya.
In Kenya, waters have already started to recede in many areas, including the Lamu, Tana River, and Garissa Counties. However, flooding situation is closely monitored in other areas such as the Taita Taveta, Narok, Migori, Homabay, and Siaya Counties. Farther south, moderate to locally heavy rainfall persisted in western Tanzania .
An analysis of the cumulative rainfall since the beginning of October has shown that well below-average rainfall has been received in the central and eastern parts of southern Africa, including southeastern Angola, northeastern Namibia, Zambia, eastern Botswana, parts of northern South Africa, northern Zimbabwe, southern Malawi, northern Mozambique, and Madagascar .
Although, some increase in rainfall was observed in the eastern parts of the sub-region in early December, insufficient rainfall, compounded by above-average temperatures has led to moderate to large moisture deficits, which have already delayed planting, reduced grazing, leading to livestock deaths and poor body conditions in many areas, including northeastern Namibia, according to reports.
The observed dryness is typical of El Niño conditions, which raises concerns for food production in southern Africa for the current growing season.