FRANCE 24 report: 200,000 people affected by the floods in Cameroon's Far North

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00:00Whole streets submerged underwater. The town of Yagwa has been in water for several weeks.

00:07Torrential rains have washed away everything on their path, including this bridge, which is almost a century old.

00:15More than 200,000 people, mostly women and children, have been forced to leave their homes seeking refuge in

00:23makeshift camps like this one.

00:25Families like Thalita's, a 57-year-old widow who lives in this tent, with 47 other people who have also lost everything.

00:35We lost fields, plates, mattresses, goats, sheep, pigs,

00:40everything, everything. Even our clothes are in there.

00:45While it continues to rain,

00:48volunteers are hard at work.

00:50This group sent by the Red Cross is busy building latrines.

00:55They want to prevent a health crisis from adding to the humanitarian disaster these people are already experiencing.

01:03We are afraid of epidemics. We don't know who will come with an infectious disease.

01:08So we have to be very careful. And we are in the rainy season, and we are in the rainy season,

01:14which is ideal breeding ground for cholera.

01:16More than two weeks after these unusual floods, Cameroonian authorities have come with relief to the victims.

01:24Several tons of bedding and basic necessities came in from the capital, Yaoundé.

01:29This aid, eagerly awaited by the victims, is distributed under the supervision of the Cameroonian Minister of Territorial Administration.

01:40Twelve divisions have been affected by the floods.

01:42In total, we've spent almost 1,900,000,000 in less than a week to help all those affected.

01:54A little consolation for the victims of the devastating floods, which have claimed at least 17 lives and affected more than 200,000 people in the far north region of Cameroon.

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