Torrential rains and floods that have hit the African continent this summer have left 340 people dead and nearly 1.5 million homeless in Chad since July, a United Nations agency reported Tuesday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 115 out of 120 departments had been affected by flooding, affecting nearly 1.5 million people across the central African country. This is half a million more people affected than in July.
All 23 of the country’s provinces are currently affected by the flooding crisis, which has become increasingly recurrent in recent years,” the report said, adding that 164,000 homes have been destroyed.
At the time, the bad weather had destroyed more than 250,000 hectares of crops, caused the loss of 60,000 head of livestock and caused significant damage to thousands of homes, schools, health centres and public infrastructure, according to an OCHA report copied to APA on Tuesday.
Vaccinating children
With farmland flooded and livestock drowned, there will be much less food available now and in the future in a country where 3.4 million people are already facing acute hunger – the highest level of food insecurity ever recorded in Chad, which has a population of just under 19 million,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke told a regular UN press briefing in Geneva.
On the ground, UN agencies and NGO partners are supporting the Chadian authorities and intervening by providing food, vaccinating children, monitoring water-borne diseases, building shelters and delivering tents, tarpaulins and blankets.
OCHA is supporting the coordination of this response and ensuring that data is collected and shared with responders so that they have the facts they need to target their assistance.
Humanitarian Response Plan
Given the scale of the needs, OCHA also immediately increased the previous allocation from the United Nations Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) from $5 million to $8 million to support the response. However, given the scope and scale of the disaster, more financial support will be needed.
The government’s flood response plan, which calls for nearly $100 million, is only 10 percent funded. The annual humanitarian response plan coordinated by the UN, which requires $1.1 billion, is 35 percent funded.
In West and Central Africa, the rains and floods of recent weeks have affected 12 countries, with Chad worst hit, followed by Nigeria and Niger. In this central Sahel country, torrential rains since June have caused at least 273 deaths and affected 700,000 people, according to figures released in early September by the authorities in Niamey.
TE/sf/lb/as/APA