Residents of the Central African Republic's capital Bangui are recovering from floods caused by torrential rain this week. While there hasn't been yet an official assessment of the damage, cases of drowning have been reported and over one hundred homes have been seriously affected in just the city's 4th district alone.
Central African Republic: hundreds of homes flooded in Bangui
A young girl wades through the flooded courtyard of her home in Bangui, Central African Republic, on July 23, 2022.
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Nathan lives in one of these houses. "On Thursday, and again on Friday, a lot of rain fell on us. We hadn't seen anything like this for over 5 years. It overflowed and we were underwater" , explains Nathan cleaning sheets his feet in the mud.
In another district, the 5th, the drainage channels were said to be overflowing. Several residents went out on the streets to denounce the poorly built constructions and call authorities for help. Something Nathan understands.
"Whenever this happens, we obviously need support because we can't do anything on our own, says the young man, There is a saying in our country: woe to the lonely man. Even with__the efforts made by the government, there is still damage. We ask them to make a little effort to repair all this so that we don't fall back into this state".
According to a regional newspaper, Bangui M'Poko International's runway was completely flooded on Friday causing difficulty for planes to depart and land.