Northern Caucasus: ACT supports flood victims

More than 50 people are reported dead and hundreds of others have been reported missing after floods devastated parts of the Northern Caucasus. The Russian Interior Ministry is reported as having said that over 75,000 people have been left homeless. Some of them had to be rescued from their rooftops by helicopters.

Three members of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International are preparing to assist the affected population. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) will support 2,500 people around Mineralnyye Vody in the Stavropol region. These are unregistered internally displaced persons (IDPs), who were mostly living in basements which were all flooded. These people, uprooted by the civil conflict in the North Caucasus are not entitled to receiving any help from the government. In Dagestan, ROC will provide relief for 2,000 IDPs as well.

The floods, which have engulfed Chechnya and neighbouring regions in the North Caucasus, have destroyed houses, roads, bridges and power lines, leaving many people without electricity. Reports say that the Stavropol region, bordering on Chechnya, was the worst hit. Local police reported at least 33 deaths from this area. There are fears that flooding may get worse as more heavy rains have been forecast.

Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), through their partner, Centre for Peacemaking and Community Development (CPCD), supports displaced people living in tent camps in Ingushetia and Chechnya. A focus of the relief will be on the Chechen capital Grozny, half of which is flooded. CPCD staff said that the flooding will have a long term impact on the return of IDPs to the heavily destroyed city. Settlements for the returning population which had been finished recently close to the river, were all washed away. Fortunately, nobody had moved in yet. Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HiA) is assessing the situation at the moment.

An appeal for the victims of the flood is being prepared.