UN airlifts after African floods

Many parts of the region have been cut off by floods

The United Nations food agency has launched a series of airlifts and food drops for more than one million people hit by floods in Somalia and Kenya.

The floods have knocked out bridges and made roads impassable, so food can only be delivered by air, says the World Food Programme (WFP).

One Somali refugee in Kenya told the BBC he and others were living in trees and were attacked by wild animals.

The floods in the Horn of Africa follow last year's droughts in the region.

That left the earth unable to absorb the heavy rains, leading to flash floods in Ethiopia, as well as Somalia and Kenya.

The UN has said the floods could be the worst in the region for 50 years.

Food distribution had to be abandoned... because flood waters rose again Geoff Wordley, UNHCR 'We are living in trees'

The rains are expected to continue for another month.

Somalia is worst affected, partly because of the lack of infrastructure following 15 years of conflict and the lack of a central government.

"Even without the floods, Somalia is one of the most difficult places to deliver assistance in the world," said Peter Goossens, WFP country director for Somalia.

"So with the waters still rising, this operation is the only way to get food and other assistance to those who are in very desperate need."

Hyenas, crocodiles

Some Somalis who have managed to flee the violence in their home country have not managed to escape the floods.

Some 80,000 refugees living in eastern Kenya, have also been badly affected.

Thousands of latrines have flooded in one camp, leading to fears of the spread of cholera, a UN refugee agency official told the BBC.

Refugee Rashid Abdi Ibrahim said the aid agencies were not doing enough to help him and the other refugees in the camps near Dadaab.

He told the BBC's Network Africa programme that they had been attacked by hyenas and snakes.

But the UNHCR's Geoff Wordley said the road to the area had been cut off by floodwaters.

"We cannot get large trucks with assistance in there now," he said.

"Food distribution had to be abandoned... because flood waters rose again. Not only that but some food has been destroyed by water."

He said that the UNHCR would help those who wished to be moved to other camps.

Parts of the nearby town of Garissa are also underwater, with houses near the River Tana submerged.

The BBC's Bashkas Jugsodaay in the town says people have been fleeing their houses and the lucky ones have now been given some food and shelter.

On Friday, the UN warned that a dam on the Tana, south of Garissa, was close to bursting.

In Somalia, crocodiles killed at least nine people after floodwaters swept them into villages, reports say.

At least 80 people in the region have died in the last three weeks.

The Shabelle and Juba rivers have both flooded their banks, affecting towns and villages in a swathe of territory stretching hundreds of kilometres.

Both of Somalia's rival administrations - the interim government based in Baidoa and the Islamists who control much of the south of the country, including the capital Mogadishu - have also asked for help.