A humanitarian crisis may be emerging in Burkina Faso with rains destroying people’s homes and farmland in several areas across the country, the government’s top crisis management expert said on 13 August.

“We are making a cry from the heart for help,” Amade Belem, the permanent secretary for the national council for emergency aid, told IRIN.

“The situation is chaotic as in some areas we have never seen such heavy rains before,” he said. “Many people have lost everything.”

“We are a long way from being able to meet their needs.”

The north

He said one of the worst-affected areas is the north province of Loroum, where flooding has washed away houses, schools and other infrastructure in 14 villages.

On 5 August two-thirds of all houses in the village of Banh were washed away after rain fell non-stop for 13 hours. Some 718 people were made homeless including 281 children. Some 450 of them are now living in the local schools.

Unless alternative housing is found, communities might not be able to start the school year as planned on September 15.

The government has appealed for 1,500 tents but has so far only received four, Belem said. He added that there is also an urgent need for medicine, water purification chemicals and bed sheets.

He said the situation is likely to deteriorate in the coming days as the forecast is for more rain.

The national Red Cross told IRIN it is making its own assessment of the situation in the north on 14 August.

The west

Elsewhere in the country, 732 hectares of crops were destroyed in the west in late July, Romain Guigma, the head of the nation Red Cross disaster response and emergency preparations unit, told IRIN.

"There is a lack of food, hygiene kits and mosquito nets to protect against diarrhoea and malaria,” Guigma said.

The prefect of the western town of Bama, 20 kilometres west of Bobodioulasso, the second largest city, told IRIN that around 165 millimetres of rain fell within 24 hours between 28 and 29 July.

“Some 5,000 people have lost everything,” Alain Galboni said. “They are living together – men, women and children -- packed into a public building.”  
 
The east

In June in the provinces of Kouritenga and Namintinga in the east some 5,900 people lost either their homes or their farmlands, Guigma said. Some 3,000 of them lost everything.

“They are in a very vulnerable situation,” Guigma said
 
Five people in the east lost their lives in June, two of them when their house collapsed.

The three others who died were children.