Photo via bangor.ac.uk

Bangladesh: Catholic charity to the rescue as rats gnaw at the poor

Caritas Australia has come to the rescue of more than 3,000 families, providing food supplies for the next four months, after they were swamped by a rat plague, reports CISA News.

South-eastern Bangladesh has been inundated with a fearsome �?rat flood', with millions of rats eating crops and jeopardising the immediate food security of hundreds of thousands of people.

The head of Caritas Australia, Jack de Groot, said more than 114,000 of the poorest people in Bangladesh have lost their crops. "The danger is the plague could spread," Mr de Groot said.

"It's like a perfect storm. The bamboo only flowers twice a century, but when it does the rats reproduce in plague proportions and consume all the crops and anything they can get their teeth into.

"Supplies of rice and vegetables, the staple diet have been completely wiped out in many places. There have even been reports of children being attacked whilst they sleep. It's incredibly alarming," he said.

De Groot said that as soon as people plant any crops or vegetables, the rats eat it within hours. "There is still four months to go until the next harvest and there is a huge demand to meet in terms of feeding those people affected," he said.

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[02/28/2008]

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