AFRICAN FLOODS : YOUR EXPERIENCES!

Africans hit by the recent floods tell the BBC News website what the situation is like where they are. More than a million people across a swathe of 17 African countries are suffering the effects of severe floods.

DR ANTHONY MANANYI, SABOBA, GHANA
The floods in northern Ghana, and other parts of Africa, only serve to make the economic situation of these countries much worse.
The main industries in the affected regions are typically agricultural.
I am a farmer myself in the Saboba-Chereponi district.
I haven't been able to sell most of my produce because of a lack of demand.

Some 260,000 people in Ghana have lost their homes to the floods
Yet, a lot of foreign imported maize is being shipped to most of the flood-affected areas, such as Wa district.
To think that local produce could not be procured for this emergency goes to show how dependent and therefore vulnerable we are to these shocks.
There is plenty of local foodstuffs (judging by my own experience) available but the authorities prefer to bring out the 'begging bowl'.
Floods are not exactly unusual in northern Ghana.
But it is quite clear that the authorities are lacking in policy measures to deal with such emergencies.
I have just lost 38.5 acres of my rice field.
Many more smallholders have lost significant proportions of their planted crops this year.
The consequences of these losses on food shortages for the coming year is not a pleasant thought to contemplate.

ADELEYE ADE ADEKUNLE, IKORODU, LAGOS, NIGERIA
Heavy rain downpours have been disturbing us for the past month.
Up to 2,000 people have been rendered homeless and one woman lost her two children to the floods.
Also, many farmlands have been destroyed by this rain.

MARK MONDAY ONESIMO, BANTIU, SOUTHERN SUDAN
Sudan has seen some of its worst floods in living memory
The floods have submerged the land which produces food for the entire state here.
Most of the roads connecting our area with other towns have been swept away.
The only roads that are open are the ones that link the oil wells.
About 40 to 50 people have died and many more are ruined and homeless.

DR JAMES ELIMA, MOROTO, UGANDA
Our district has been cut off.
Prices of food and basic commodities have gone up.
The Toyota land cruisers have become Toyota water cruisers, so help us God.

PAUL EJEM, SOROTI, UGANDA
Many people have been displaced from their homes as a result of the floods, most people are now resettling in the camps that had set up during the Lord's Resistance Army rebel invasion.
Most areas cannot be accessed and transport has come to a standstill in some parts of eastern and northern Uganda.
Eight people have so far died in the district of Soroti.

INNOCENT OKIA, 18, MBALE, UGANDA
I left Soroti in northern Uganda last month because of the flooding and came to Mbale in the south east.
The water kept coming up and up in our area.
I decided to leave so my family could be safe. My parents were killed by rebels and so I am the one now responsible for my three sisters (aged 15, eight and seven) and two brothers (aged six and four).
I was worried for their safety as they are still very young.
The water kept rising.
Everything was washed away.
We lost everything - plates, clothing, bedding, my bicycle, even our sorghum and cassava crops.
Everything was washed into Lake Kyoga [The Victoria Nile flows through Lake Kyoga on its way from Lake Victoria to Lake Albert].

Some African countries have endured months of flooding.
Flood scenes

We couldn't endure to stay so I paid some fishermen to take us in their boats to the other side.
Now, I can't go back because of the water but even if I could there's nothing left for us there.
I found a room to rent in a sort of slum area just outside Mbale town.
It is our new home.
I am an artist. I make wildlife figures out of banana leaf fibres. Luckily I am managing to sell some of my work in Mbale town.
The money I am making enables me to buy food for my family to eat and to pay our rent.
No-one here is helping those of us who have been affected by the floods - not the government and not aid workers.
My family and I have only myself to rely on.

ANGERET PAUL GODFREY, AMURIA, UGANDA
Since I was born in 1974, I have never experienced such floods.
Imagine a family with an average earning of $20 per month (£10), who entirely depend on subsistence farming and now all their crops are under water...
It takes God's hand to have a meal.
And the situation is worsening.

BBC NEWS REPORT.