Government raised US $1.9 for flood victims

Senegal has so far raised 1.2 billion francs (about US $ 1.9 million) for the tens of thousands of people made homeless by rain-caused floods in the country this year, an official heading a committee monitoring national disasters told IRIN on Tuesday.

The official, Colonel Mamadou Dione, said the committee needed some 3.2 billion CFA (about US $5.04 million) to care for the 23,400 homeless. He said Senegal had informed development partners of the country’s needs.

Heavy rains caused flooding in many parts of West Africa this year and in some countries they were described as the worst downpours in 30 years. In Senegal, the worst hit area was the River Senegal valley in the north of the country where, during successive years of drought, families had settled sensing no potential danger from flooding.

An official in the governor’s office in the northern city of St. Louis, Momodou Mustapha, told IRIN on Monday that 1,200 people were displaced by the flooding and 50,000 suffered property losses.