Heavist ever rainy season predicted in Chad

AllAfrica.com, via the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks: Up to 70,000 people have been affected by flooding in northwestern Cameroon and southern Chad; based on meteorological data, disaster workers with the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) predict a longer and wetter rain season than normal. Thousands of people have remained homeless in Chad and Cameroon since the rains began early in August, according to Allale.

August flooding affected more than 8,000 families in Logone Occidentale, Mayo Kebbi and Moyen Chari in southern Chad, and 5,000 families in and around Cameroon's northwestern town of Garoua, 60 km west of the Chad border, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC). The IFRC has launched an emergency appeal to help 14,000 victims across the two countries….

…Flooding has exposed residents to respiratory infections, malaria and diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera, according to the Washington DC-based food security monitoring organisation, FEWSNET. With blocked roads and destroyed bridges in and around Garoua in northwest Cameroon, the biggest fear for flood victims there is the lack of drinking water, according to the IFRC's Diallo…..

Map of Chad and neighboring countries, from the CIA. Wikimedia Commons