The forgotten flood victims

The rains are easing up, but chaos remains. The UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) says 16 million children in South Asia are dependent on its help. They lack everything: drinking water, food and medicines. Schools, hospitals and homes have been destroyed, families ripped apart, and the number of dead is still rising.

The floods are the worst in decades. In South Asia, the masses of water have driven millions of people from their homes. In Nepal and Bangladesh there were times when a third of the country was under water. Many villages were also completely destroyed in Champaran District in the Indian state of Bihar (pictured).

According to Caritas International, around 41 million people have been affected by the floods, four million of them in Bangladesh. Many escaped with their lives but don't know how they will survive in future, without house and home. Aid organizations are calling for donations.

At a turnpike in the Indian state of Bihar, families driven out by the floods are camping in the open. They hope the rain will ease up and they will be able to return to their villages. India has suffered repeated flooding: This year the monsoon rains were so heavy they even brought the financial capital Mumbai to a standstill.

In Nigeria too, deluges of rain have resulted in severe flooding. At least 100,000 people have been forced to flee the mass of water. The worst affected states are Borno and Benue. The River Benue burst its banks in the state capital, Makurdi (pictured). Thousands of people had to be evacuated.

In Maiduguri, the capital of the Nigerian state of Borno, the floods have also turned roads and pathways into muddy, or sometimes raging, rivers. Here, a street vendor is seen wading through the mud, hoping to find buyers for his indestructible flip-flops.

For many years now, floods have been a regular event in Nigeria. In 2012 several towns and villages in the oil-rich Niger Delta were flooded (picture). More than 15 people died, and thousands of residents lost the roofs over their heads. Oil pipelines were submerged beneath the floods.

Lydia Anusa, an 87-year-old Nigerian woman, is seen here sitting on all her worldly possessions after the closing of the reception camp in Yenagoa in the Niger Delta. Nearly eight million people were affected by the floods in the Niger Delta in 2012. Two million of them lost their houses and became internally displaced, and 365 people were killed.