Bonyamo (N/R), Dec. 3, GNA - ActionAid Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, has presented relief items worth GHc44, 000 to 13 communities in the Central Gonja District that were hit by the floods recently. The items included 50 bags (100kg) of rice, 200 bags (100kg) of maize, 100 bags (100kg) of millet, 50 packs of blended flour, 100 gallons of cooking oil, 20 bags of iodated salt, 20 bags (50kg) of sugar and 50 bags (100kg) of beans.

The rest were 40 packets of roofing sheets, 250 treated insecticide mosquito nets, 20 boxes of washing soap and 20 boxes of bathing soap. Mr. Mohammed Saani, the Outgoing Northern Regional Programmes Manager of ActioAid, did the presentation on Thursday at Bonyamo.

He said the roofing sheets were meant to assist the people in the Bonyamo and Kikali No. 4 communities who were willing to relocate to higher grounds from the low laying areas, adding that people who were not willing to relocate will not benefit from the roofing sheets. The District Chief Executive for Central Gonja, Mr. Salisu Be-Awuribe, commended ActioAid for the donation, the largest from an NGO, and appealed to other NGOs to come to the aid of the people. He appealed to the people to heed to the appeal of ActionAid and move upland.

Alhaji Mahama Silimboma, the Northern Regional Coordinator for the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), said NADMO had done intensive sensitization for the people to move upland but refused to comply resulting in the tragic floods.

Several communities in the Central Gonja District were affected by floods in October as a result of heavy rains and the opening of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso.