Africa: Officials in Somalia said yesterday that hundreds of people may have died after the Asian tsunami destroyed impoverished villages along the country's Indian Ocean coast.
The Horn of Africa country's new government appealed for aid to repair damage caused by the powerful ripple effect of tsunamis triggered by the undersea earthquake off Indonesia.
Somalia, where war damage to infrastructure means information can be slow to emerge, appeared the worst-affected nation along Africa's eastern seaboard, although homes and businesses in low-lying coastal regions of Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles were also damaged.
"The tidal wave badly affected the Somalia coast. There has been loss of life and property," Somalian presidential spokesman Yusuf Mohammed Ismail said in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
"We urgently appeal for food, medicines and shelter," he said, adding that the reported death toll was "very low".
Somalis living by the sea scrambled for higher ground as the waters rose, engulfing a mosque in Brava town and smashing fishing boats pulled up past the high-tide mark, witnesses and Brava district commissioner Abdullahi Dhuhulow said.
In Beyla, Garacad, Muduy and Nugaal villages, 14 people, including three children died, caught in the waves as they smashed into the beaches, radio operator Abdi Fanah said from high ground behind the coast, where he had fled to with his radio.
Fishermen said two boats carrying a total of nine crew had set sail early on Sunday but had not returned.
Many chose to stay in port yesterday, repairing damage to their boats and nets caused by the surge of water. Waves had dropped by noon.
"Yesterday, it was a surprising event, but today the situation is less dangerous," fisherman Mohamed Murad said as he worked on his boat at El Ma'an harbour, north of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.
The waves cracked El Ma'an's seaward harbour walls and docks used to offload cargo.
An estimated 1,200 people living in south-east Madagascar were made homeless after sea levels rose suddenly and engulfed 150 homes, state-owned Radio Madagascar said.
A five-foot wave swept through the seaside village of Ambalafary, close to Manakara city, flooding houses and forcing hundreds to flee. There were no reports of deaths in the radio bulletin.
Beaches closed on Sunday along Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, popular with tourists from across Europe and America, were reopening, said the district commissioner in Malindi town, Mobeya Mogaka. - (Reuters)