Update: Africa Floods Displace Millions, Prompt Warnings of Disease, Dam Bursts

Floods in Africa that are displacing millions of people from Guinea on the west coast to the Central African Republic more than 2,000 miles to the east are prompting warnings of dam bursts and disease.

In Chad, rising waters in the Chari and Logone dams could cause “catastrophic floods,” a United Nations agency warned, and Cameroon’s government boosted its financial response more than fivefold.

Floods in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, and districts around the country are a threat to public health, said Lancei Toure, the director general of the country’s disaster management department.

“Flooded areas face risks of water-borne diseases because water has invaded toilets, wells and cemeteries,” Toure said in an interview. “Guinea risks food insecurity due to the destruction of crops composed mainly of rice and corn.”

The heavy rains, which are affecting coastal regions in West Africa, the semi-arid Sahel region and the Sahara Desert itself, have wrought havoc across 14 nations, according to the UN’s World Food Programme. At least four million people have been affected, about 1,000 have died and vast stretches of farmland are under water.

“These floods will have a long-lasting impact on the most vulnerable, as food production is likely to decline significantly, along with the availability of safe water, sanitation, and safe housing,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said in a statement.

While Mali, Niger, Chad and northern Nigeria are among the hardest hit nations — with about 55 million people in the Sahel already considered food insecure because of conflict and adverse weather – coastal countries are also now affected.

By Sept. 16 almost 1,000 people had been displaced in Guinea and four had died in floods that also inundated 11,000 hectares (27,181 acres) of farmland.

In Cameroon, where 200,000 have been displaced and over 100,000 hectares flooded, the government has increased the amount of money it’s made available for relief efforts to 1.9 billion CFA francs ($3.3 million) from 350 million CFA francs.

Forty-four trucks laden with food and bedding have been sent to the north of the country, Paul Atanga Nji, minister of territorial administration, said.

In Mali the 4 billion CFA francs have been provided by the government to help with the emergency, according to Alousseni Sanou, the country’s finance minister.

The WFP and other aid agencies are working across a swath of countries to counter the effects of the floods, which the International Rescue Committee described as as the worst in the region in 30 years.

In some countries those affected say there’s been little government assistance.

“I don’t know what the government has planned,” said Oumarou Aska, a 55-year-old farmer with 11 children in Niger’s Zinder region, who’s 10 hectares of crops have been washed away. “Up to now, they haven’t done anything to help us.”

Researchers say that while the region is periodically hit by heavy rainfall, it’s becoming more frequent, with the likely culprit being climate change. Heavy floods now occur every two to five years compared with once a decade in the past, OCHA said.

“People in the Sahel need to be more prepared,” Kiswendsida Guigma, a meteorologist at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, said. “According to climate projections, rain in the Sahel will increase further. These kind of extreme events will become more frequent.”

Guigma said World Weather Attribution, an association that works with researchers across the globe including himself, is currently assessing whether there’s enough information to declare the floods a climate change-induced event.

The floods, which come just months after the region experienced a dangerous heat wave, coincide with a deluge in central Europe that have killed more than 20 people and inundated a number of towns.