Worst floods in living memory: Eastern Chad battered by heavy rain

The surge of water left no time to flee

“The water came in a huge surge, with high speed, high force,” says Julie Melichar, MSF Sila project coordinator. “In places, people could not walk anymore—they had to swim.”

Melichar adds, “We saw people fleeing, panicking that they could not make it out in time. We could hear houses collapsing all around us. We saw people looking at their homes being destroyed in front of them. Thousands and thousands of people moved from the town to the hill to seek refuge. They tried to take whatever they could with them, but it was very little.”

Many people have lost everything, trapped on a hill without clean drinking water, food, or shelter. MSF teams report that the thousands of people in the makeshift camp include many children, pregnant women, and elderly people. 

Floods contaminate drinking water and food supplies

Many wells are flooded and contaminated, with people forced to drink stagnant water. Food stocks have been destroyed in a place where there was already a food crisis before these tragic floods. People have little shelter from the rain and many have been victims of snakebites. The health center and hospital were flooded and the majority of medical stocks are ruined.

MSF is calling for humanitarian organizations to provide emergency assistance for people in Koukou and the region now, and to assess the needs in surrounding areas. Given the extent of the flooding, solutions must urgently be found to reach affected communities, bring supplies, and provide a rapid and coordinated response.

Food and shelter must be an immediate priority, as well as an effective water, sanitation, and hygiene response to reduce the risk of disease outbreaks. People may be trapped for some time, with the risk that the floods will rise again even higher.

MSF staff have been present in Sila for three years, working with the community to prevent and treat the most common health conditions, including malnutrition, malaria, respiratory diseases, and diarrhea.

All MSF staff and their families in Koukou are affected by this disaster while they are working to help their community. In an MSF boat, our teams and local authorities were able to rescue 296 people trapped by the waters. 

Without aid, “this natural disaster will become a humanitarian catastrophe”

“Colleagues were calling, telling us they were floating in their houses, asking us to send the boat,” says Melichar.

“People’s rafts capsized; they had to seek refuge in trees. All through the night until the morning, our boat was helping to rescue people.”
MSF has set up a mobile primary health clinic on the hill and is improving access to drinking water. But this disaster has occurred at the worst possible time, when both malaria and malnutrition rates are at their seasonal peaks.

“We’re treating malaria, acute watery diarrhea, and respiratory tract infections,” says Melichar. “We’re also extending the water system because right now people are drinking contaminated water. But people are facing shortages of everything you can imagine. “In this scenario I dread thinking what types of health problems can develop. Epidemics are a very real threat. We’re very worried. People in Koukou need humanitarian organizations to come to their aid, otherwise this natural disaster will become a humanitarian catastrophe.”