LONDON (AlertNet) - Heavy rain from the El Nino weather system has started to flood parts of east Africa and over the next few weeks will inflict more misery on an area already struggling with the worst drought in a decade.
Thousands of people in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia have fled the flooding, and aid agencies are preparing to evacuate hundreds of thousands more when further rain pours down on the hard, sun-baked ground.
"As many as 750,000 people may eventually be affected by floods and landslides from the current rainy season," the United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on the U.N. news website.
Over the past week, around 15,000 people in Somalia and nearly 5,000 people living on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast have moved into safer areas, OCHA said.
When rain falls after a prolonged drought, it quickly runs off as the ground is too hard to absorb it.
Drought also weakens land cohesion and landslides are common in areas hit by heavy rains.
And the flood waters also spread disease.
"In drought areas where cattle are weak and children malnourished flood waters can quickly spread water-borne diseases," said Alun McDonald, spokesman at Oxfam's office in Nairobi.
And overcrowded areas in Kenya were particularly high risk.
"One concern are the slums in Nairobi," he said.
"They were overcrowded anyway but because of the drought they have beomce even more crowded as people moved in from the drought areas. This could be quite serious."
El Nino, which means "little boy" in Spanish, is the abnormal warming of waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean that induces severe weather patterns and heavy rain.
Aid agencies have already appealed for emergency funds to alleviate the effects of the drought in east Africa which, they say, is causing severe food and water shortages and affecting about 23 million people.
But the heavy rain from El Nino is no relief from the drought.
"The consequences include massive displacement of populations and destroyed infrastructure, leading to escalated food prices in the affected regions," the Kenyan Red Cross said.
And the flood waters and humidity will also spread diseases such as malaria and pneumonia, said Georg Nothelle, head of Malteser InternationalÂ?s Africa department, in a statement.
Malteser International is a Germany-based relief agency which has about 200 projects in 20 countries.
Tadesse Kassaye, Ethiopia country manager for British aid group Health Unlimited, said low-lying areas were particularly vulnerable.
"This has happened for three consecutive years and forces people to leave their homes," he said.
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