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Flood emergency persists in West Africa

Countries
Benin
+ 5 more
Sources
MISNA
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The heavy rains could continue until September across West Africa, where they caused wide flooding and submerged vast regions in the past weeks, uprooting more than 200,000 people. Based on weather forecasts of the past days, the seasonal rains are still affecting Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Togo, and in a lesser measure Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea Bissau. The consequences of the flooding and damages appear more critical in nations struck over the past year and a half by soaring food prices. "West Africa's annual floods bring with them not only the threat of vector-borne and communicable diseases, but it further endangers the lives of people already malnourished by the food price crisis", said a representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Based on United Nations estimates, Benin is the worst-hit by flooding with over 150,000 displaced, followed by Niger and Togo.

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