Djibouti gets two years of rain in day

NAIROBI, Kenya — Flash flooding has hit the small but strategic East African nation of Djibouti, where the government and United Nations said the equivalent of two years worth of rain fell in a single day. Several regional countries including Kenya are struggling after such downpours, with more to come.

Rainfall from October to mid-November has been up to 300% above average in the greater Horn of Africa region, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

On Thursday, a joint Djibouti-U.N. statement said up to a quarter-million people have been affected in recent days in the country on the Red Sea that’s home to military bases for the United States, China and others. With heavy rain forecast through the end of the month, that number could grow.

Djibouti has been called one of the world’s most vulnerable non-island nations in the face of climate change as sea levels rise.

Neighboring Somalia has been hit hard by recent flooding as well.

In Kenya, East Africa’s economic hub, the government said 120 people have been killed in flooding and mudslides during an unusually severe rainy season. More than 60 died over the weekend in West Pokot county.

AP/ARNULFO FRANCO A woman wearing the Panamanian traditional-style dress known as “Pollera” dances Thursday during an independence day parade in La Chorrera, Panama. Panama is celebrating 198 years of independence from Spain.