Tumu, Sept 25, GNA - Farmers in the Sissala East and Wa East districts who are lamenting over the loss of their crops to floods are also battling black flies that are preventing them from going to their farms.

People in the Wuru, Kwapun, Banu, Basisan, Dolibizon, Santijan, Duu, Komo and Bawiesibelle communities along the Sisili River in the Sissala East District and Gbantala, Holimoni, Yala, Kulun and Kundungu communities in the Wa East District along the Kulun River are depending on smoke to drive away the flies.

The flies are the carriers of germs that cause river blindness. Mr. Ali Kwabalugu, Assembly Member of the Banu Electoral Area, told the Ghana News Agency that people in his electoral area are battling the flies with smoke from fires they set.

Similar reports had been received from farmers in South Sissala, Wa East District.

He said teachers who were accommodated by the community members would not be accommodated this time round because their buildings had collapsed.

Mr. Issifu Basuglo, Assembly Member of the Yala Electoral Area, said social activities had come to a halt in most of the communities due to the invasion of the flies and appealed to the government to spray the area to wipe out the flies. He also appealed to the international community and other benevolent organisations to help the people with protective clothes and mosquito nets.

The Upper West Regional Minister, Mr. George Hikah Benson, has started to distribute relief items from the government and non-governmental organisations to flood victims in the Sissala East and Sissala West districts. The items included maize, rice, used clothes and cooking oil. Mrs Asibi Winifred Dy-Yakah, Deputy Regional Minister, also distributed food items to flood victims in the Jirapa, Lawra and Nadowli districts while efforts are being made to reach out to communities that are inaccessible.