Thousands displaced by Burundi floods
Source: Reuters
BUJUMBURA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Thousands of people have been displaced by flooding in Burundi after heavy rains washed out homes near the capital over the weekend, local officials said on Monday.
Officials estimated that at least 7,500 people had been left homeless in suburbs south and west of Bujumbura.
"The damages caused by floods are enormous," said Gilbert Ntihebuza, administrator of Kanyosha, the worst-affected southern district. "We counted 2,000 houses destroyed and every house is occupied by at least three persons."
Ntihebuza said the victims were mainly subsistence farmers, who were now in urgent need of aid like food and blankets.
A further 1,500 people were displaced by torrential rains in the western district of Gatumba, local administrator Jean Samandari told Reuters.
Floods since November last year have devastated crops in parts of the country, whose main export is coffee.
Local authorities fear that hunger -- already endemic in the poor, war-torn country -- could worsen.
President Pierre Nkurunziza has decreed a national tax in solidarity with victims of food shortages, with ministers and members of the parliament giving 8 percent of four months' salary while civil servants give 2 percent from this month.
Scores of people have been killed and thousands displaced by five months of floods throughout east Africa that hit normally drought-prone nations like Somalia and Ethiopia worst.
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