*Fierce Storms, Floods in Africa kill dozens and wipe out crops*

15 Sep 2007 16:55:08 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Jeremy Clarke

NAIROBI, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Raging storms and fierce Floods have caused
the deaths of at least 80 more people, displaced hundreds of thousands,
and devastated crops and livestock across sub-Saharan Africa, officials
said on Friday.

Often prone to drought, East and West Africa also frequently endure
floods in August and September, the end of the rainy season.

In the worst-hit nations in East Africa, at least 63 people died in
Ethiopia, 15 in Rwanda and nine in Uganda, governments and aid agencies
said.

Hailstorms and landslides have compounded the problems, while thousands
of families have fled to flimsy shelters, the new school term has been
severely disrupted, and the risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera
and malaria was growing.

The United Nations said severe floods across West Africa had affected
500,000 people in 12 countries, wiping out crops and homes there as well.

Outbreaks of water-borne diseases and swarms of crop-eating locusts are
feared, the latter in both Mali and Niger, the U.N. Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

"Conditions are ripe for an infestation," OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth
Byrs told a news briefing in Geneva.

The affected countries are Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast,
Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and
Togo. About half of those affected live in Ghana, OCHA said.

The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
said earlier this month at least 87 people had been killed in flooding
in West Africa, mostly in Nigeria, in the past two months.

HOMELESS

In Ethiopia, the federation said its team in the East African country
had reported that at least 63 people had died from acute watery
diarrhoea in the flood-hit Oromia region, with a total of 3,680 cases
reported last month.

The U.N. World Food Programme earlier said in a statement 17 people had
died in the floods in Ethiopia, "while some 4,000 head of livestock have
been drowned or washed away, and 34,000 hectares of land has been damaged".

The floods have affected 183,000 people in north Ethiopia, and displaced
42,000, WFP added.

"Food distributions have started to the women, children and men hardest
hit by the floods and WFP will work with the concerned authorities to do
whatever needs to be done," said WFP Ethiopia country director Mohamed Diab.

The Red Cross federation appealed for nearly $800,000 to help the flood
victims there.

Rwanda said the floods had killed 15 people and left about 1,000
homeless after downpours since Wednesday in the north.

Local Government Minister Protais Musoni told Reuters the Northern
Province had also suffered hailstorms and landslides, which had
destroyed livestock and property.

In Uganda, the floods have killed nine, driven scores from their homes
and closed schools, authorities said.

State Minister for Disaster Preparedness Musa Ecweru told Reuters a week
of torrential rains had devastated the war-stricken north of the country.

"The floods have made an already bad situation worse. The people who had
been displaced by insurgency have had their camps swept away by floods,"
Ecweru said. "Several communities have been cut off and we cannot access
them." (Additional reporting by Francis Kwera in Kampala, Arthur Asiimwe
in Kigali, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva)