Somalian government says tsunami toll at least 100 dead

Nairobi (dpa) - One hundred people have died in Somalia from flooding after Sunday's catastrophic Indian Ocean earthquake sent tidal waves that battered the East African coast, a Somalia government spokesman said Tuesday.
"Unfortunately, we can now confirm that at least a hundred people have died'', the spokesman of newly installed president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Yusuf Mohammed Ismail said the dead included fishermen, who had gone out to sea on Sunday, as well as people living in coastal communities.

The remoteness of the affected communities made it difficult to gather correct information about casualties and damage caused by the sea surges, said Ismail.

"They were all caught off guard'', he said. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC, was more moderate in its estimate of casualties.

"According to the information weve been able to gather from the local Red Crescent branches, we can say that between 40 and 50 people have died as a result of the sea surges'', the head of the IFRC Somalia delegation, Ed Cooper, told dpa.

"The Puntland coast (northeastern Somalia) seems to have gotten the worst hit''.

The IFRC was still gathering information early Tuesday, a time-consuming process due to the remoteness of the region, and said it would decide on its response when more details had become clear.

Kenya, Mauritius and the Seychelles islands northeast of Madagascar were among the East African countries hit by tsunamis.

The Somali leadership, newly installed, was to hold an emergency meeting at their temporary base in Kenaya.

Ismail said the Somali government would ask the U.N. and other aid agencies to conduct an assessment mission of the damage in Somalia.

On Monday, Somalia appealed to the international community to come to the aid of the affected communities.

"As our economy is built largely around fishing and livestock, this is an enormous blow'', Ismail said. dpa ve