The number of people affected by Africa’s worst floods in decades has risen from one million to 1,5-million, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.
”Floods across Africa are reported to be the worst in decades in some places and extend in an arc from Mauritania in the west to Kenya in the east. At least an estimated 1,5-million people are so far affected,” WFP said in a statement.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had earlier this week put the figure of affected people at one million since the floods hit parts of the continent in July.
At least 270 people have died as result of the floods, according to figures compiled by Agence France-Presse from tolls given by governments and humanitarian aid organisations.
Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria have been worst hit so far in terms of confirmed deaths as a direct result of floods and flood-induced diseases.
Aid agencies have predicted that the situation will only deteriorate in the coming days with further downpours forecast over much of the world’s poorest continent. — AFP
