Flooding affects 6.6 mln people in West, Central Africa: UN

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) — The number of people affected by flooding in the West and Central Africa region continues to grow, currently standing at 6.6 million people in 16 countries, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the countries most affected include Chad, with 1.9 million people affected, Niger with 1.3 million, Nigeria with 1.2 million, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with 1.1 million.
As of last week, humanitarian partners and authorities reported that more than 1,400 people had been killed and 980,000 others displaced.
The office said that with hundreds of schools and health facilities damaged or destroyed, people’s access to basic social services has been curtailed in those countries.
According to OCHA, some 700,000 hectares of farmland has been damaged and around 120,000 heads of cattle killed, further aggravating the food security and nutrition crisis in the region.
OCHA said the United Nations and its humanitarian partners continue to support the response efforts, including by providing food, clean water, cash assistance, sanitation, shelter support and medical supplies across the region.
UN Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya has allocated 35 million U.S. dollars so far this year from the Central Emergency Response Fund to support the humanitarian response to flooding in five of the affected countries: Chad, Congo, the DRC, Niger and Nigeria. But more funding is urgently needed to prevent the further deterioration of the humanitarian situation, OCHA said. ■