C.A.R: floods leave over 6,000 homeless in Bangui

More than 6,000 people have lost their homes to flooding in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic.

Heavy rains have worsened the plight of residents following the outburst of the river Oubangui last week.

“It has been a week now that we are suffering, our homes are flooded, our children, we are in very bad condition, we don’t know where to go. This is deplorable and we want the president to come and see for himself because we live really badly and children are in the water as you can see”, Pulcherie Siodoguene, a resident of Kolongo neighbourhood said.

Kassa Moise is resident of Gbanikola and a father of 9 children.

“The Oubangui (river) rose and it entered the neighbourhood. It flooded everybody and some houses collapsed. You can’t even see the collapsed homes because they are under water. Even my house is flooded”, he said.

A local Member of Parliament fears the use of informal latrines in the neighbourhood could lead to serious health crisis.

“When you don’t have a collective sanitation you end up with what we call individual sanitation, un-regulated and that means there is a risk of waste contaminating the water table and the wells in which people get water from and so the risk of illness is very high, the risk of malaria is a constant in District 6 but now we need to find solutions to get out of this situation”, Toh Sa Benza said.

Central African Republic leads a Climate Change Vulnerability Index. It is also listed as most at risk of flooding. Other counties include DR Congo and Liberia.

Reuters