The World Federation of Trade Unions, gathering in its ranks 105 million workers from all over the world, stands by the side of the workers in Sudan, Cameroon and Senegal, who are affected by intense floods. Sudan is in a state of emergency due to floods that have cost the life of around 100 people and the destruction of 100.000 homes since July. After heavy rainfall, the Nile River rose by 17.5 meters.
In Senegal thousands of people displaced in its capital city after a weekend of heavy downpours that left behind at least 6 deaths and many homeless people. In Cameroon more than 1.500 families have been displaced in the North. Overwhelming floods from heavy rainfall in the town of Maroua the last few days, destroyed their homes, livestock and plantations.
The WFTU expresses its sincere condolences to the families of the victims. We urge all responsible authorities to immediately compensate all the affected population and provide them safe lodging and restored houses.
Meteorologists forecast even more rain the next time period for those countries. The workers must strengthen their struggle for the URGENT implementation of all adequate anti-flooding measures so that they will not mourn more victims and see their homes, animals and plantations being destroyed again.
“Climate change” is not to be blamed for this situation. It is used as an excuse so that the workers accept that it is their “fate” to be drowned during floods, to be burnt during fires, etc. The lack of the adequate anti-flooding and protection measures, the inexistence of proper housing and infrastructure for the workers and the poor people, is the reason of the floods’ consequences. If these measures were applied, the consequences of the floods would be a lot milder and maybe no deaths would have occurred. For example, near the Nile a lot of trees have been cut down to make place for residential areas, affecting the valleys where the water would flow through.
The world’s class-oriented trade union movement will continue and strengthen our struggle for the protection of workers’ lives against extreme weather phenomena.
We call on the authorities to take immediate measures of protection and relief of the affected people and all workers of the above countries.
The Secretariat