MONITORING (SW) – 63 people have died in floods following torrential rains in northern Tanzania, officials have said.
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said in comments broadcast on television on Monday that the number of injured stood at 116 people. Landslides had destroyed half of one village he visited, he said.
“Of the total fellows we lost, 23 are men and 40 are women,” he said during an event to bid farewell to the bodies of those who had died in Hanang district, northern Tanzania.
Queen Sendiga, commissioner for the Northern Manyara region, said the death toll had reached 68, the AFP news agency reported.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Sendiga said that about 100 homes were swallowed up in the village of Katesh, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the capital, Dodoma, and that rescue workers continue to search for people buried in the mud.
Earlier on Monday Zuhura Yunus, a spokesperson for the president’s office, said the flooding has affected at least 1,150 households and 5,600 people, with 750 acres [300 hectares] of farmland also destroyed.
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