Cyclone Mekunu hits Yemeni island, 17 missing
Seventeen people were missing and hundreds of others evacuated from their homes on Thursday after Cyclone Mekunu hit the Yemeni island of Socotra, causing severe flooding and damage, officials said.
Neighbouring Oman is preparing for landfall on Friday, with national weather experts expecting Mekunu to intensify to a category two cyclone from category one, after it hit Socotra on Wednesday night. The missing people had been in two boats that sunk and three vehicles swept away by floods, said Ramzy Mahrous, governor of Socotra, an island paradise 350 kilometres (220 miles) off Yemen in the Arabian Sea.Yemen's internationally recognised central government early declared Socotra a "disaster province" and Mahrous said it could not handle relief efforts on its own, with the number of missing expected to rise. "The coastal areas were submerged by floods causing heavy damage to homes," with more than 10 villages in Socotra's south and east cut off, Mahrous told AFP.
Four people on one of the sunken boats were rescued while three of the missing had vehicles swept away by flooding, Fisheries Minister Fahad Kafin told AFP. Around 150 families were evacuated to government facilities after downpours flooded houses and streets, trapping people in their homes, he said.
Some residents carrying children tried to escape through the flooded streets, an AFP correspondent said.
Authorities called on humanitarian organisations and the Saudi-led military coalition that is battling Huthi rebels in the country to help, according to Yemen's state-run news agency Saba.