Floods leave 240 homeless in Sibit

Flash floods have left 240 people homeless in the northeastern town of Sibit, forcing local administrators to appeal for emergency aid, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Thursday. Several days of heavy rain swept through the area, causing the River Tomi to overflow its banks and destroying 22 homes. Cassava and sesame fields were also inundated. The six-month rainy season that started in June has rendered roads impassable. An official of the Italian aid agency Cooperazione Internazionale, in the northeastern town of Birao, Paolo Lozzi, told IRIN on Monday that his agency could not deliver medicines to Boromata, a village of 2,000 inhabitants 70 km from Birao. He said malnutrition and respiratory infections had killed at least 73 children in the villages since May. Sibut was the scene of fierce fighting from October 2002 to March 2003 when the current head of state, Francois Bozize, led a rebellion to unseat President Ange-Felix Patasse. The town's residents and those of the surrounding area fled for safety, leaving farms unattended. The farming season was almost lost until donors provided seeds for planting. However, apart from groundnut seeds donated in May by a Canadian NGO, Oxfam Quebec, and the French government, Sibut farmers have not received any further aid.