Heavy rains displace 5,000

Heavy rains backed by gusting winds have displaced some 5,000 people in the central, south central and northwestern parts of the Republic of Congo, according to local administrators.

"An emergency committee of local administrators set up to aid the victims gone to the regions, while waiting for the rapid intervention of the government and other humanitarian bodies," Fulgence Milandou, the prefect of Sangha Region, told IRIN on 29 November.

The affected localities are Loukolela and Mossaka in the central region of Cuvette, Makotipoko in the south-central Plateaux Region, and the riparian communities in Sangha and Ngoko, in the northwest, where some 3,000 people are affected.

Local administrators said the victims needed shelter, blankets, mosquito nets and lamps. The lack of food and medical aid had raised fears that many could succumb to malaria. The situation had become worrying in Makotipoko, Mossaka, Loukolela and in a number of villages, where some 2,000 people were affected, they said.

After a month-long assessment mission that began 8 October, Catholic Relief Services and Caritas reported that villages along the River Congo close to Loukolela were already inundated by rising waters and that the village of Bonongo was submerged and children could not go to school. Riverside suburbs of Mossaka had started getting waterlogged, and river waters had invaded a large part of Makotipoko's market and its Abongo suburb.

Caritas in Loukolela counted 1,136 people displaced and 278 who remained put in water polluted by latrines. Cases of diarrhoea, malaria and skin infections have been reported.

Mokotipoko residents badly need barges for shelter. In Mossaka and Loukolela, residents need implements such as spades, hoes and cutlasses to raise plots of land so far not inundated.

The localities of Mossaka, Loukkolela and Makotipoko have respectively, 27,000, 18,000 and 20,000 inhabitants, who largely live on fishing and agriculture. The have experienced flooding nine times since 1961.