Death toll in Bangladesh floods hits 110, over 9m displaced

The death toll in what has been described as the worst floods in decades in northeastern parts of Bangladesh has hit 110 people while over 9.5 million people have been displaced as they scramble for food, drinking water and medical supplies.

Officials say heavy monsoon and intense rain that have pounded Bangladesh and northeast India in the past two weeks brought the worst floods witnessed in decades in some parts of low-lying Bangladesh and India’s Assam state, killing hundreds of people and rendering millions homeless and stranded.

A statement from the country’s emergency authority say normal monsoon rains in South Asia typically begins in June but this year, heavy downpours have lashed northeastern India and Bangladesh as early as March, triggering floods as early as April in Bangladesh.

Read also:45 dead, hundreds missing as floods wreak havoc in South Africa

“With rising global temperatures due to climate change, the monsoon is becoming more variable, meaning that much of the rain that would typically fall in a season is arriving in a shorter period,” the statement said.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who flew over some of the flood-hit areas on Tuesday, later wrote on Twitter that his government world do everything possible to provide shelter, food and medical supplies for the people.

So far, Bangladesh authorities have reported at least 32 deaths in the Sylhet province one of the worst-hit areas in the extreme northeast of the country near the border with India, as villagers waded, swam and paddled makeshift rafts or small skiffs to a boat delivering aid that had moored to one shelter.

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