The Republic of Congo is facing its most severe floods in sixty years, impacting over 350,000 individuals who urgently require assistance. Many villages are accessible only by boat, according to the United Nations’ statement on Friday.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that intense rainfall since October has caused the banks of the Ubangi River, a tributary to the Congo River, to overflow.
“The United Nations is responding to a flood disaster, unprecedented in scale for six decades, and with hundreds of thousands of people in need of humanitarian assistance,” an OCHA spokesman said in Geneva.
The republic, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, declared an emergency on December 29.
“Some three weeks later, nine out of the country’s 12 departments remain under water and a total of 1.8 million people are affected,” he said.
“More than 350,000 people urgently need humanitarian assistance, but access is a challenge because of the floods and many villages can only be reached by boat or canoe,” he added.
“Villages, schools and health facilities have been flooded… there’s limited or no access to clean drinking water or sanitation in the worst-affected areas.”
Approximately 27,000 children are currently not attending school.
UN agencies, in collaboration with the government, have formulated a $26 million budget plan aimed at addressing shelter, food security, nutrition, health, water, sanitation, and hygiene, according to OCHA.
The implementation of this plan will necessitate international funding.
The floods may also lead to lasting repercussions, as a decline in agricultural output is anticipated, given that 2,300 hectares (5,700 acres) of cultivated land are submerged, as per OCHA’s information.
Across the Congo River, the second-largest in Africa following the Nile, the Democratic Republic of Congo has experienced extraordinary floods as well.
In the capital city of Kinshasa, with a population of 15 million, residential and tourist areas remain submerged. The last occurrence of flooding on a comparable scale in the region was recorded in 1961.