Rains claims scores of lives in many countries

Burundi appeals for aid as rains, floods displace 100,000

Almost 117,000 people evacuated due to floods in Kazakhstan

Nairobi, Kabul, Peshawar & Dubai: Rains wrecked havoc and claimed many live in Burundi, UAE, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

The government of Burundi and the United Nations have launched an appeal for financial aid to cope with the "devastating effects" of months of relentless rainfall that has displaced nearly 100,000 people.

East Africa has been experiencing torrential rains in recent weeks that have cost the lives of at least 58 people in Tanzania in the first half of April, and 13 people in Kenya.

Cars are stuck on a flooded road after a rainstorm hit Dubai on Wednesday. — Reuters

Burundi, which the UN says is one of the 20 countries most vulnerable to climate change, has been pelted by almost non-stop rain since September, with its main city of Bujumbura ravaged by floods.

Afghanistan and Pakistan

Around 70 people have been killed by heavy rains lashing Afghanistan over the past five days, the government's disaster management department said Wednesday.

Afghanistan was parched by an unusually dry winter which desiccated the earth, exacerbating flash-flooding caused by spring downpours in most provinces.

Disaster management spokesman Janan Sayeq said "approximately 70 people lost their lives" as a result of rains between Saturday and Wednesday.

Fifty-six others have been injured, he said, while more than 2,600 houses have been damaged or destroyed and 95,000 acres of farmland wiped away.

Giving a smaller death toll last week, Sayeq said most fatalities at that point had been caused by roof collapses resulting from the deluges.

People try to avoid getting wet as they cross a flooded street following heavy rains in Sharjah on Wednesday. — AFP

Neighbouring Pakistan has also been hammered by spring downpours, with 65 people killed in storm-related incidents as rain falls at nearly twice the historical average rate.

Dubai

Dubai's giant highways were clogged by flooding and airport passengers were urged to stay away on Wednesday as the glitzy financial centre reeled from record rains.

Huge tailbacks snaked along six-lane expressways after up to 254 millimetres of rain -- about two years' worth -- fell on the desert United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.

At least one person was killed after a 70-year-old man was swept away in his car in Ras Al-Khaimah, one of the country's seven emirates, police said.

Road workers and rescue crew close a section of Al-Fateh Highway in Bahrain's capital Manama after rainwater flooded it during a heavy rain storm early on Tuesday. — AFP

Passengers were warned not to come to Dubai airport, the world's busiest by international traffic, "unless absolutely necessary", an official said.

"Flights continue to be delayed and diverted... We are working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions," a Dubai Airports spokesperson said.

Climatologist Friederike Otto, a specialist in assessing the role of climate change on extreme weather events, told AFP it was "high likely" that global warming had worsened the storms.

Official media said it was the highest rainfall since records began in 1949, before the formation of the UAE in 1971.

Kazakhstan

Almost 117,000 people have been evacuated due to floods in Kazakhstan, the Central Asian nation's emergencies ministry said on Wednesday. About 16,000 people have already returned to their homes, the ministry said in a statement, as water has receded in some regions. But evacuations continued in North Kazakhstan, Aktobe, West Kazakhstan regions, he said. — AFP and Reuters