Torrential rains, waves of more than two meters and violent winds, with gusts exceeding 75 kilometers per hour, began to be felt in the region, a situation that the Meteorological Department in Kenya predicts will worsen.

About 400 people have died in East Africa since March and tens of thousands have been displaced due to the torrential rains that have caused floods and landslides, swept away homes and destroyed roads and bridges.

"Current observations suggest that tropical cyclone Hidaya has made landfall in Tanzania. But there is another low pressure system developing behind it," the Kenyan department said.

In turn, in today's bulletin, the Tanzania Meteorological Authority reported strong winds and heavy rainfall along the coast during the night, asking residents living in risk areas and those working by the sea to take "maximum precautions".

The cyclone is expected to reach gusts of 165 km/h when it makes landfall, the regional climate center reported.

The cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean normally runs from November to April, with about a dozen storms per year.

On Friday, Kenyan President William Ruto called the weather forecasts for the country, which is about to face the first cyclone in its history, "terrible", and indefinitely postponed the reopening of schools scheduled for Monday.

In Kenya, since March, at least 210 people have died and about 100 others are missing, while 165,000 people have been displaced, according to government data.

"No corner of our country has been spared this devastation," the President said.

On Thursday, the Ministry of the Interior ordered all people living near large rivers or "dams or reservoirs full or nearly full of water" to leave those areas within 24 hours.

To the south, at least 155 people have died in Tanzania in floods and landslides.

East Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change, and rainfall in the region this year has been amplified by El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon generally associated with global warming, which causes droughts in some parts of the world and heavy rains in others.

In Burundi, at least 29 people have died and 175 have been injured since the start of the rainy season in September, according to the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

OCHA estimates that the torrential rains that are hitting East Africa have already affected more than 637,000 people, 234,000 of whom have been forced to flee their homes.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was "particularly concerned" about the fate of thousands of displaced refugees in Burundi, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania.

By country, OCHA reports that about 195,000 people were displaced in Kenya as of Friday, according to the country's National Disaster Operations Center. Burundi has 31,200 displaced people and warns that more than 20,000 farming families have lost their crops, almost 40,000 hectares, or 10% of agricultural land.

"They are being forced to flee once again to save their lives, after their homes were swept away," said UNHCR spokeswoman Olga Sarrado Mur.

In April 2024, UNHCR launched its first Climate Resilience Fund to reinforce the need for aid to refugees, displaced communities and their hosts in the face of increasing extreme weather events.

Read Also: Number of deaths in floods in Kenya rises to 210 (Portuguese version)