CHAD: Govt to provide US$600,000 of aid as flood damage spreads

As officials in remote regions throughout Chad report worsening flood damage, Chad’s government has pledged to provide US$600,000 to cover initial shelter, food and medicine needs.

“A first evaluation of urgent needs has already been made, and a crisis committee has been put in place,” said government spokesperson Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor in a statement on 26 August. “It is necessary to assist the victims of the floods, and to plan ahead the medications that will be needed for epidemics,” the statement said.

The government has unblocked 300 million CFA francs (US$623,000) to cover the initial needs of Chadians displaced in a first wave of floods in the south west region of Mayo Kebbi on 9 August. Chad has also appealed to the international community to provide assistance.

Since the early August floods, destroyed houses and flooded fields have also been reported in the Tandjile region in the south, Salamat in the east, Lac in the west, and Hadjer Lamis in the north central region. Chad has 18 regions.

Secretary General of the Salamat region, Ngarsadoum Sjimia, told IRIN on 26 August that at least 12 people have drowned in the Bahr Azoum river there, and three others were killed in Abou Déia, a town in the region.

“The victims of the floods are without shelter or food and are exposed to a range of illnesses,” Sjimia said.

In the region of Batha, a resident reached by telephone told IRIN that at least 80 houses were destroyed and around 80 hectares of crops washed out. According to a Batha local government official Senoussi Aboubakar, more than 60 houses have collapsed. The location is now completely cut off by flood waters, Aboubakar said.

Radio Chad announced on 24 August that the Infrastructure Minister, Adoum Younousmi, had travelled to the town Faya-Largeau in the north to review the damage heavy rains have caused there.