14 October 2008
Bujumbura — Hundreds of families are without assistance in the northwestern province of Cibitoke after heavy rains damaged houses and crops, officials said.
The administrator of the Mabayi commune in Cibitoke, Jean-Marie Vianney Hategekimana, said exact figures were not available, adding: "We are still assessing the damage and the needs of the population."
Early in October, residents of the communes of Bukinanyana and Murwi, also in Cibitoke, suffered heavy losses following torrential rains.
Some 200 hundred houses were damaged in Murwi and more than 30 in neighbouring Bukinanayana. The administrator of Bukinanyana, Antoine Girukwishaka, told IRIN the victims sought refuge with their neighbours or built makeshift huts to provide shelter.
Girukwishaka said the plantations of bananas and cassava in some areas were swept away, while a primary school and a technical secondary school were also damaged, prompting education officials to seek shelter in nearby churches.
The governor of Cibitoke, Zéphérin Barutwanayo, said the affected needed tents, blankets, mats and building materials. "They also need food assistance as there will be no harvest at all," he said.
The head of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Management at the Burundi Red Cross, Vénérand Nzigamasabo, said the organisation was preparing to assist 208 families in Cibitoke.
Nzigamasabo said the regional delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies based in Nairobi had approved the Disaster Response Emergency Fund, allowing the Burundi Red Cross to assist victims of the rains with non-food items such as plastic tents, cooking kits, blankets, soaps and vegetable seeds.
Similar assistance was given to residents of Nyamurenza last week, who were also victims of heavy rains.
Damage from heavy rains has been reported in several parts of the country since the beginning of the rainy season in mid September. Crops have been destroyed in the provinces of Ngozi (north), Muyinga (north east), and Bujumbura Rural (west).
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
