The death toll from flooding caused by torrential rains in Somalia has risen to 96, according to the state news agency SONNA on Saturday.

“Somalia’s flood death toll rises to 96,” SONNA stated in a post on X, formerly Twitter, adding that the figure had been validated by the country’s disaster management agency’s head, Mahamuud Moallim.

Like the rest of east and Horn of Africa, Somalia has been battered by relentless heavy rains that begun in October, caused by the El Nino and Indian Ocean Dipole weather phenomena.

Both are climate patterns that impact ocean surface temperatures and cause above-average rainfall.

The flooding has been described as the worst in decades and has displaced about 700,000 people, according to the United Nations.

The intense rains have unleashed widespread flooding across the country, triggering displacement and exacerbating an already existing humanitarian crisis caused by years of insurgency.

In neighbouring Kenya the floods have so far killed 76 people, according to the Kenyan Red Cross, and also unleashed widespread displacement, destruction of roads and bridges and left many residents without shelter, drinking and food supplies, according to the charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).