World Tour - Too wet and too dry

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with Onize Ohikere, our reporter in Abuja, Nigeria.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Flooding kills hundreds in South Africa—Today’s World Tour kicks off in South Africa.

Heavy rainfall last week in the southeastern part of the country sparked widespread flooding that left hundreds of people dead.

Travis Trower directs the volunteer-run organization Rescue South Africa.

TROWER: The devastation is quite vast, I mean, every single little stream or tributary turned into a raging river, a lot of houses that have collapsed, a lot of buildings that have been washed away, the community is affected in a massive way.

Some residents of Durban have been without power or running water for more than a week. At least 443 people are confirmed dead. But officials warn that number could rise as search teams comb through towering piles of rubble.

President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of emergency on Monday.

RAMAPHOSA: It is going to take a massive effort, drawing on the resources and capabilities of the entire nation to recover from this disaster.

The national weather service said 18 inches of rain fell in 48 hours. That’s nearly half the rainfall the city of Durban normally gets in a year.

Drought in the Horn of Africa—Meanwhile, drought in the horn of Africa has created a looming humanitarian crisis.

Michael Dunford is with the World Food Program.

DUNFORD: After three failed rainy seasons it is estimated that the region is the driest it has been in 40 years. We are now waiting for the current rainy season to arrive. It’s late and we are very concerned of what the implications will be if it is below average.

The World Food Program estimates 20 million people are at risk of starvation. The months-long drought has hit Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia especially hard. And soaring food and fuel prices due to the war in Ukraine have hampered efforts to provide aid.

A quarter million people, half of them children under the age of 6, died of hunger or malnutrition in Somalia during a similar famine in 2011.

Riots in Sweden—Next we go to Europe.

AUDIO: [Sound of riots, rock throwing]

Protests in Sweden turned violent over the weekend. Several hundred people clashed with police, throwing rocks and destroying vehicles. That in response to an anti-immigration group’s plan to burn copies of the Koran in public.

Three people suffered injuries from ricocheting bullets when police fired warning shots at one mob. A dozen police officers were wounded during several days of protests.

In response to the unrest, Iraq’s foreign ministry summoned Swedish diplomats in Baghdad on Sunday. It warned the violence could have “serious repercussions” on “relations between Sweden and Muslims in general, both Muslim and Arab countries, and Muslim communities in Europe.”

Fuel shortages in Sri Lanka—We wrap up this week in South Asia.

AUDIO: [Chanting, clapping]

Thousands of people took to the streets in Sri Lanka Tuesday to protest widespread fuel shortages.

Police said tens of thousands of angry drivers burned tires and blocked a major road leading to the capital, Colombo.

AUDIO: [Man speaking Sinhala]

The country’s president apologized for the economic crisis and said he deeply regretted the people’s suffering.

But this protester said the situation is only getting worse.

PROTESTER: We don’t have gas here. Now the medical supplies are very low. And the food, very low. Luckily, (a) few of the countries in the world, especially India, China, (a) few countries they are helping us.

The Sri Lankan government is seeking up to $4 billion from the International Monetary Fund to help pay its debts and boost its reserves.

Last week, the government announced it would default on $51 billion in foreign debt. The Colombo Stock Exchange suspended trading to prevent a complete market collapse.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

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