Floods Kill 94 In Indonesia, Malaysia

At least 94 people were killed and dozens left missing by floods in Indonesia and Malaysia, officials said. Looting broke out in areas of Malaysia abandoned because of rising waters.

An aerial view from an aid flight over the worst-hit region on Indonesia's Sumatra island showed many houses submerged, while only the roofs of others were visible. Some families were trapped on the roofs of their homes.

The death toll from more than three days of rain-triggered flooding on Sumatra was at least 87, with dozens others reported missing, while seven people have been killed in neighboring Malaysia, officials said.

More than 150,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in both countries.

The worst hit region was in Tamiyang district in Aceh province in Northern Sumatra, where rescuers found 60 bodies on Sunday, said Nurdin Jos, an Aceh government spokesman.

Aceh was the region worst hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami, but this week's flooding was in areas unaffected by that disaster.

Another official said 13 more people, mostly children, were killed elsewhere, adding to 14 confirmed dead on Saturday. State news agency Antara reported 114 people killed, but gave no attribution.

In Malaysia, nearly 70,000 evacuees were in public shelters in Johor state, about 10,000 in Malacca and 5,760 in Pahang, the Bernama news agency said.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called on people to help prevent looting in the flooded areas by making citizen's arrests, the report said.

"There are looting incidents but not that rampant," Abdullah was quoted as saying. "We cannot wait for the police to act. The public and the volunteers must help."

Officials were not immediately available to confirm the report.

The flooding, which followed unusually heavy rainfall, is reportedly the worst in living memory in some areas.

The weather was expected to improve this week, the department said.

Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands, where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.

In June, severe flooding and landslides killed more than 210 people on Sulawesi island.

African Floods Wash Away Hundreds Of Small-Scale Farms

Floods caused by heavy rains that began in October have hit Kenya, Somalia, Rwanda and Ethiopia, affecting more than 1.8 million people, according to the U.N.

The World Food Programme (WFP) brought in a heavy lift helicopter on Friday to help deliver aid to flood victims in the heavily inundated delta region of the Tana River in Kenya.

The WFP helicopter will be operating out of Garsen and Malindi, flying in food and other vital supplies to those people cut off by the floods. Many of the villages in the region have been submerged in flood water leaving some villagers only reachable by air.

"A lot of water came to our village, our gardens and what we had planted was washed away. We are trapped here and surrounded by water and we have no means out of here. And when there is a lot of water then diseases are around," said one villager.

With the use of the helicopter much needed aid can now be dropped into the worst affected areas. However, the flood water has destroyed hundreds of small-scale farms that border the river, causing concern amongst officials of worsening food shortages in the near future.

Public health officials are also preparing themselves for a rise in malaria cases. Other diseases such as cholera are also a threat due to the lack of proper water hygiene.

East Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world where most people live on less than one US dollar a day. It is home to more than 200 million people and regularly sees droughts and famine.