Vatican City, 20 September 2007 – Huge swathes of Africa are under water with severe flooding driving over 1.5 million people from their homes. Countries affected range from Mauritania on the Atlantic seaboard right through to Kenya on the Indian Ocean, and include Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda.

Caritas is launching emergency appeals to respond to the needs of the people in Uganda and Ghana.

In Uganda, flooding has affected 300,000 people and with no let up in the heavy rains, that figure is expected to rise. Caritas has appealed for USD 1.6 million to provide food, shelter, and sanitation equipment for the next six months to help over 20,000 people living in camps in Amuria and Katakwi in eastern Uganda.

It is a double blow for many in these areas who had already been forced from their homes once as a result of conflict and insecurity in northern Uganda.

Caritas Uganda's Communications Officer Vincent Sebukyu said, "The situation is terrible. People have been forced from their homes on to higher ground. Now, even that has been washed away. Many of the areas are completely cut off from outside help. People can no longer move.

"The flooding in Uganda has been ignored by the international community so far. Caritas is obliged to respond to human suffering. We work in some of the most inaccessible areas providing help, but it is becoming increasingly difficult. They need food, shelter, and medicine in case of an outbreak of disease.

"If the heavy rains continue we will have an increased loss of lives, epidemics, hunger, and poverty as the economy as a whole is damaged. The people in these areas depend on a good harvest, but crops have been washed away and fields left water logged.  It is the worst flooding since 1972. These are areas of serious deforestation, so damage to the environment could be a factor."

In Ghana, flooding has forced more than 250,000 people from their homes, destroyed thousands of acres of farmland, and damaged public infrastructure.

Caritas has launched an appeal for nearly USD $250,000 to provide food for one month to 40,000 people driven from their homes by the floods.
 
Dr Africanus Diendong, who works with Caritas Ghana, said, "The most urgent thing people need is food. Whole communities have been cut off. You can only reach them by boat. They have no food. Farmland has been washed away. It is still raining. It's a very desperate situation. The threat of disease is one of the biggest fears. People are living out in the open or in schools. Homes have been wiped out."

Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development, and social service organisations working in 200 countries and territories.

 Please contact Patrick Nicholson on 0039 06 69879725 or 0039 3343590700 or nicholson@caritas.va