Africa floods: Your experiences

Africans hit by the recent floods tell the BBC News website what the situation is like where they are.

The UN says 1.5 million people are affected by the floods which have hit a swathe of countries from the east to the west of the continent.

Read their experiences below and if you too have been affected please use the postform at the end of the page to send us your stories.

JOHN TANKO BAWA, NAVRONGO, GHANA

My home village and farmlands in Ghana have been inundated in the recent floods.

Our family has lost a total of 50 acres of farmland and its produce. This years rains has dealt a heavy blow to us as we were on the verge of harvesting after the rains were late.

Herds of cattle and other farm animals were all washed away with nearby villages in the Sandema district completely cut off.

Relief is slow in coming as our national disaster organisation were caught unaware.

The new school calendar has begun but our children cannot go to school as their classrooms have been turned into homes and camps for the displaced.

In fact the teachers, parents and the pupils themselves are among the displaced.

Urgent support is required to reconstruct our shelters and food as food crisis is eminent.

KIDEGA DANIEL FRED, GULU, UGANDA

The situation in northern Uganda is getting out of hands.

The people who have for the last 10 years or more, been displaced by war with the Lord's Resistance Army to internally displaced peoples' camps, have now been displaced by flood from the camps.

Now there are no homes, schools, food or medical care. We need your help.
Kidega Daniel Fred, Gulu, Uganda

PETERSON OLUKA, SOROTI, UGANDA

This is the most catastrophic disaster I have ever experienced in my life!

We can no longer access our capital, Kampala, as the floods have cut off the Soroti-Mbale road that links us.

Soon we shall begin air transport, which is very expensive and can only be affordable by the rich. It's devastating.

EMILY DALTON, KIGALI, RWANDA

Thirty-seven more families have been made homeless this week in the Nyabihu district in Western Province - adding to the 500 plus displaced during last week's storms. We've had torrential rain, many roads even in Kigali have been rendered impassable except by 4x4.

But the land of the thousand hills is naturally suited to shrugging off the rain...

The main problem is power - Rwanda does not produce enough to sustain itself and relies on imports.

I have become very adept with the paraffin lamp!

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'.

AFRICA HAVE YOUR SAY It is very difficult to handle this flood situation because it is a natural disaster from God William Kokulo, Monrovia Send us your comments

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.

Some African countries have endured months of flooding

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

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.