Are you being affected by the floods in Benin?
The UN refugee agency has begun an emergency operation to airlift tents to the largest city Cotonou, as the country battles its worst floods for decades.
Weeks of rain have severely affected more than half the country and there are increasing concerns about the rising number of cholera cases being reported.
UN figures say at least 680,000 people have been affected by the floods and is concerned that the crisis has not received enough international attention.
Have the floods affected you or your family? Is enough being done for Benin? Could the crisis have been averted? What impact is it having on Benin's neighbours, Nigeria, Togo or Ghana? What should be done now?
Do you live in a country that has been affected by floods? How were they dealt with?
If you would like to debate this topic LIVE on air on Tuesday 26 October at 1600 GMT, please include a telephone number. It will not be published.
Photo: Loetitia Raymond/CARE
Comment number 1.
At 17:11 25th Oct 2010, AKPAN wrote:Alas, natural disasters are here with us forever. We've only just witnessed the same tragedy in Pakistan. It's easy to conclude (as some commentators already have) that there's nothing anyone can do to prevent these tragedies. I disagree. Yes, governments can't always prevent natural tragedies, but they can mitigate their impact on ordinary lives. Imagine, for example, that Benin had basic state institutions and services. Millions might have already been moved to safe places and tents built to shield them from death.
But as in Pakistan before it, Benin (like so many other African countries, I must add) is synonymous with lack of these basic necessities of statehood. Yet, as in Pakistan and other African countries, its rulers are some of the wealthiest individuals on earth - thanks to an unfettered ability to loot their people's wealth. Truly heartbreaking.
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Comment number 2.
At 20:11 25th Oct 2010, Kolawole Ajao wrote:2010 should be considered THE YEAR OF GLOBAL DELUGE. Ikorodu is a city in mainland Lagos which has currently been ravaged by flood. It should be the biggest flood I saw in my adult life. Homes were pulled down. People fled. I saw the thickest vehicular traffic jam of my life.
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Comment number 3.
At 06:57 28th Oct 2010, makoboza wrote:This is a matter of having spiritual sympathy because neither of the people experiencing such catastrophe wished to be under such miserable condition. Am greatly touched because it is not that those people are the worst sinners since in many other countries,we have even the worst. I think this is more than being affected but being concerned about the fellow brother.Thanks go to the people of good will with giving arms and generous hearts to the neighbor.
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Comment number 4.
At 11:25 28th Oct 2010, david lulasa AKA daudee mwanzi wrote:Those in Haiti, Indonesia and Benin etc are my brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers. Whatever happens to them affects me the other human being...we still need to conquer the whole world..or else the whole world will be conquered by lions and mosquitoes.
TAMBUA VILLAGE,GIMARAKWA,HAMISI,VIHIGA,KENYA.[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]
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