N'DJAMENA, Aug 25, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Torrential rains have caused 340,000
people to lose property or flee their homes in Chad in almost two months
since late June, the United Nations said Wednesday.

"Recent rainfall has affected more than 341,000 people in 11 of the 23
provinces of Chad," the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement.

This meant they had to "abandon their homes" or "lost possessions", the OCHA
office in Chad told AFP.

Last week, OCHA said torrential rains had killed 22 people in Chad since
June.

The capital N'Djamena, which is located near the Chari river, has been the
most badly affected by the downpours.

Several neighbourhoods were flooded earlier this month after torrential rain
hammered the city for more than a week.

Last year, 256,000 people suffered damage during floods, while up to 388,000
people were affected in 2020, the agency said.

Some 5.5 million Chadians -- around a third of the landlocked central African
country's population -- needed "urgent humanitarian assistance" last year,
according to the United Nations.

The situation has worsened because of the war in Ukraine, with challenges
bringing Ukrainian grain to foreign markets.

Chad, which has seen numerous armed conflicts since independence from France
in 1960, is the third least developed country in the world, the UN says.