- NAIROBI (Reuters) - Failed
state Somalia and tourist paradise Seychelles have appealed for aid after
heavy seas whipped up by the Asian earthquake killed at least 122 people
thousands of miles away in Africa.
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- An estimated 10,000 people were in need of emergency
aid in the remote northeast of Somalia, the African country worst hit by
the quake and resulting tidal waves, U.N. officials said on Tuesday.
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- Hafun and Garad villages and most of Banderbayla town
in Somalia's Puntland region were under water, the U.N. officials said,
quoting government ministers in Puntland.
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- "As a result about 110 people were reported dead
in Puntland only," Rudolph Kazimiro, an officer of the U.N. Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
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- "It is believed that the death toll might rise due
to the reported number of missing fishermen who remain unaccounted for.
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- "The Minister (of Local Government in Puntland)
stated that up to 22 boats were reported missing."
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- Representatives of the war-ravaged Horn of Africa's new
government, recently formed at peace talks in the Kenyan capital Nairobi,
reported a state of emergency in Puntland.
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- "We invite the U.N. system to avail any rapid assistance
in the form of food and medicine," Somali Prime Minister Mohammed
Ali Geedi told a news conference in Nairobi, adding he would visit Puntland
shortly to inspect the damage.
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- Somali government officials were meeting relief agencies,
diplomats and logistics experts in Nairobi on Tuesday afternoon to assess
what help could be sent into the country.
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- The biggest earthquake in 40 years hit southern Asia
and triggered a massive wall of water that raced across the Indian Ocean,
bringing devastation and death to Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Indonesia.
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- More than 38,000 people are reported killed but officials
said the final toll could rise above 55,000.
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- Seychelles president James Michel called for international
help on Tuesday after he took a helicopter trip around the worst hit islands
in the Indian Ocean archipelago.
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- Infrastructure which has benefited from a 20-year cycle
of heavy investment was left mangled and unusable by the force of the waves,
which wrecked houses, fishing boats, luxury hotels and which washed away
bridges and roads.
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- "The sewerage system is gone and only some of the
water pipes are still intact," Stephen Rousseau, the head of Seychelles
water and sewerage divisions said, standing at a point where a bridge carrying
power conduits, water and sewerage pipes has been washed away.
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- The bridge was the only road link between the north and
south parts of the main island. Waves carried fish onto the runway of the
airport and to the front floor of the central bank.
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- Tourists on the main resort island of Praslin helped
locals with the massive clean-up job left by the waves.
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- Ten swimmers aged between 12 and 20 died soon after the
tidal wave triggered by the quake hit Tanzania's coast on Sunday morning,
police in the capital Dar es Salaam said on Tuesday.
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- A tourist from Nairobi died on the Kenyan coast at Malindi
on Sunday.
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- In southeast Madagascar, an estimated 1,200 people were
made homeless when the sea suddenly rose and engulfed 150 homes.
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- South Africa's National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said
on Tuesday that one man had been lost on Sunday on the country's Eastern
Cape coast in an exceptionally high tide.
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- "We believe it was the effect of the earthquake
-- it gave us a very high tide very quickly," said Jonathan Tufts
of NSRI in Port Elizabeth.
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- "A gentleman who was in waist-deep water suddenly
found himself in very deep water and he was lost at sea. We did manage
to rescue his companion," Tufts said. The incident occured at Blue
Horizon Bay about 32 kms from Port Elizabeth.
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