Number of people affected by floods in Chad skyrocketed to nearly 1.5M: UN

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - The UN humanitarian office said Tuesday that the number of people affected by floods have jumped to nearly 1.5 million in Chad, urging further assistance.

The figure is half a million more than 964,000 affected people reported last month, Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, told a UN briefing in Geneva, citing the Chadian authorities.

Laerke said that at least 340 people have been killed in the floods.

He said tens of thousands of houses have been destroyed, while more than 250,000 hectares of crops are flooded.

"That’s a vast area equivalent to 190,000 football fields," he explained, adding that more than 60,000 heads of livestock have perished so far.

"With farmland flooded and livestock drowned, there will be a lot less food available now and in the future in a country where 3.4 million people already face acute hunger - the highest level of food insecurity ever recorded in Chad," Laerke said.

The spokesperson said that the UN humanitarian office has immediately raised a previous allocation from the UN's emergency fund, the CERF, from $5 million to $8 million to support the response.

"But given the scope and scale of the disaster, more financial support will be needed – the government's own flood response plan, asking for nearly $100 million, is just 10% funded," he said.

"The UN-coordinated annual Humanitarian Response Plan, which requires $1.1 billion, is 35% funded," Laerke added.

The recent flooding in the broader West and Central Africa region has had a significant impact on 12 countries, with Chad bearing the brunt of the damage, followed by Nigeria and Niger.