SANAA, Oct 25 – Floods killed 41 people and around 31 are missing in Yemen after torrential rain left swathes of the impoverished country under water, President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday.
Around 1,700 homes have been destroyed, he said, displacing hundreds of families in the floods that swept the southeastern provinces of Hadramout and Mahra following 30 hours of heavy rainfall.
Yemeni authorities have declared the eastern provinces a disaster area and Saleh has been touring some of the worst hit regions.
Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world and its government is already struggling against a rebellion in the north, unrest in the south and an al Qaeda resurgence, while a growing number of Somali refugees stretch its resources to the limit.
Situated on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen is prone to flooding during the monsoon season.