Dakar — Flooding across Chad has destroyed homes, crops, livestock, wells and latrines in communities already pummelled by food shortages and high malnutrition, according to the UN.

"Huge numbers of people are injured and displaced - many zones are not even accessible yet because of water, and the rain continues," an Interior Ministry official told IRIN on 27 August.

"The Chadian authorities and humanitarian organizations are fully aware of the threat, given the vast destruction and extreme food insecurity in the coming months," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report released on 26 August.

Drought in 2009 meant at least two million had to deal with food shortages, and "on top of that, Chad now faces floods that once again create food insecurity."

Initial assessments in accessible areas show that floods have affected 20,000 households and left at least 47,000 people homeless. The government, the UN and NGOs are distributing food, medical kits, water purification equipment and other relief supplies throughout the country.

The Borkou and Tibesti areas in the north, where there are at least 20,000 people in need of assistance and aid agencies are scarce, are among the hardest hit.

Victorien Ndakass of the UN Refugee Agency, which is providing tents and other relief supplies to flood victims, told IRIN that the agency has materials available at its field offices in Abeche, Koukou and Goz Beida that the government can transport to the north.