Logone dam rupture leaves neighbouring towns flooded

Several localities in the Extreme-north, frontier of Chad, are engulfed in water following the rupture of a protection dam on the Logone river.

According to a provisional assessment, hundreds of people are without shelters in the locality of Dougui, after ten houses were absorbed in water, without counting the loss of cattle. The disaster victims were temporarily delocalized in Bengué-Palam in the district of Kai-Kai.

"We are shocked because last year, and practically at the same period, we witnessed the same problems. Nothing was done by the authorities to find us a place of re-housing", indicated the spokesman of the disaster victims.

According to concordant testimony, several cracks appeared on the protection wall. The persons in charge did not take time to repair them.

Two years after serious floods struck this part of the country, more than twenty deahths occurred. The people have been taken care of by government initiative, the Project for emergency intervention against floods (PULCI).

Financed with over 54 billion francs CFA, this project delays, whereas several sites were selected as zones of re-housing for the disaster victims.