Ethiopia sends aid to thousands stranded by floods

ADDIS ABABA, Aug 15 (Reuters) Ethiopia sent motorboats and helicopters today to deliver food and begin rescuing some 10,000 people stranded after heavy rains caused a river in the remote south to overflow, killing 125 people.

Flooding has now killed more than 600 Ethiopians in the last 10 days. The Dechatu river burst its banks last week in the eastern town of Dire Dawa, killing 254 people and leaving 250 missing and feared dead.

''People living in the area are mostly nomadic pastoralists.

Those affected could not be more than 10,000,'' Inspector Daniel Gezahenge, a spokesman for the southern regional police force, told Reuters.

Disaster prevention officials are also preparing to move thousands of people threatened by an overflowing river east of the capital in the Awash Valley, where three of Ethiopia's major sugar estates are located.

The Ethiopian Red Cross said only one of 13 places affected after the southern Omo river burst its banks on Sunday had so far received any aid. The river lies some 1,200 km south of Addis Ababa, the capital of the Horn of Africa nation.

''Twelve localities which are now under the flood area are not getting help. One helicopter went down to get (some of those stranded),'' said Atu Lema, southern branch secretary for the Ethiopian Red Cross.

The state-run Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) said it had sent five motorboats to help rescue victims.

''Emergency supplies for ... people marooned by floods from Omo River are on the way,'' said Sisaye Tadesse, a DPPC official.

''CRUEL BLOW'' Floods typically occur in lowland areas after heavy rains in the June-August rainy season pelt the country's highlands.

Flash floods in Ethiopia are caused by land cultivation, deforestation and overgrazing as rivers overflow more easily than before, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said.

''The rivers in Ethiopia have less capacity to hold as much water as they did years before, because they are being filled up with silt,'' WFP spokeswoman Paulette Jones said.

''It takes less intensity of rainfall ... to make a river in any particular part of the country overflow.'' The WFP said it began distributing food aid today to 10,000 people displaced by flooding in Dire Dawa, 525 km east of Addis Ababa.

''The extensive flooding was a cruel blow for already vulnerable people, many of whom have now lost everything, including their families,'' Abnezer Ngowi, WFP Acting Country Director in Ethiopia, said in a statement.

The DPPC issued a fresh warning to people living downstream on the Awash River, some 300 km east of the capital, which flooded upstream villages in early August.

Some 7,000 people living on the riverbank will be moved to higher ground as the overflowing river has already destroyed one bridge, local media reported.

The Awash Valley is home to three of Ethiopia's major sugar estates. Africa's second most populous nation earned 116 dollar million from sugar and byproducts in 2004/2005.

REUTERS SP RAI2251