Nearly 1 Million Affected as Sri Lanka Faces Worst Flooding in Decades — UN

Almost one million people across all 25 districts of Sri Lanka have been affected by widespread flooding, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). More than 180,000 people from 51,000 families are currently sheltering in 1,094 government-run safety centres.

The UN reported that Cyclone Ditwah made landfall on 28 November before moving back over the Bay of Bengal, unleashing some of the most severe floods the country has experienced since the early 2000s. The impact has been devastating:

• Over 15,000 homes have been destroyed
• More than 200 roads remain impassable
• At least 10 bridges have been damaged
• Sections of the rail network and national power grid have been affected

Emergency response efforts are ongoing as authorities and humanitarian agencies continue to assess the scale of the destruction.