Floods generated by exceptional rainfall have killed more than 200 people and affected over a million more, in a band of countries from Senegal to Sudan, the UN and local authorities said Friday.

Aid needs are likely to surpass 2019 levels, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

In 11 countries in West and Central Africa, 760,000 people have been impacted and 110 killed, "and the rains are not over," Julie Belanger, OCHA's head for West and Central Africa, told AFP.

Another 103 people have died in Sudan, according to the country's civil defence organisation, and OCHA said that more than half a million people were affected there.

In Niger, one of the worst-hit countries, Prime Minister Brigi Rafini appealed for "support" during a meeting Friday in the capital Niamey with international NGOs and foreign diplomats.

Seventy-one people have died and 350,000 people have been affected.

Niger alone will need $10 million (8.4 million euros) in humanitarian assistance, according to OCHA.

Senegal has recorded six deaths, while nearly 190,000 people have been affected by floods in Chad, it said.

In Nigeria's northeastern Borno state, 26,000 people were impacted by the elevated waters.

The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) released $29 million in aid in 2019 for 1.1 million people in 11 flood-affected countries, Belanger said.

Thirteen dead in Burkina floods
Ouagadougou (AFP) Sept 10, 2020 - Burkina Faso has declared a state of natural catastrophe after 13 people were killed in floods.

"Torrential rains have caused a lot of damage in our country... as of today, we have recorded 13 dead, 19 injured, many houses destroyed and lots of people affected," Culture Minister Abdoul Karim Sango said on TV late Wednesday.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, on Twitter, said the government had earmarked five billion CFA francs ($9 billion / 7.5 million euros) for the emergency.

He added that he had also authorised the ministry for territorial administration to requisition public buildings to help people who had fled their homes.

Burkina Faso, located in the heart of the Sahel on the Sahara's southern rim, is one of the world's poorest countries.

Forty percent of its 20 million people live below the threshold of poverty.

Pounding rain began to fall in mid-August, flooding parts of the capital, Ouagadougou, where drainage systems were overwhelmed.

In neighbouring Niger, 65 people have died and nearly 333,000 people have been affected, while around 100 have died in Sudan to the east, and six in Senegal to the west.

Heavy rains kill six in Tunisia
Tunis (AFP) Sept 11, 2020 - Six people, including three children, have been killed in six days of heavy rains across Tunisia, a spokesman for the civil protection agency told AFP on Friday.

The severe weather has in the last week hit numerous regions from Jendouba, an agricultural area in the northwest, to Mahdia, a tourist region in the east.

Two children, one aged four and the other a 10-year-old, died in the seaside town of Monastir, while a four-year-old similarly fell victim to the weather in Jendouba, agency spokesman Moez Triaa said.

All three of the other fatalities were adults, who respectively passed away in the capital Tunis and the regions of Sidi Bouzid and Mahdia.

Torrential rains on Thursday briefly generated floodwaters over a metre deep in several districts of the capital Tunis, causing damage to homes, market stalls and a hospital.

The flooding has sparked a backlash on social media against inadequate drainage infrastructure.

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65 killed, 330,000 left homeless in Niger floods
Niamey (AFP) Sept 9, 2020
Three months of pounding rain in Niger have left 65 people dead and affected nearly 330,000, while several areas of the capital Niamey remain under water, the government said. The ministry of humanitarian action and disaster management told AFP on Tuesday that as of September 7, 51 people had died when their home collapsed in the floods, and 14 had drowned. The worst-affected regions are Maradi in the central south of the country, Tahoua and Tillaberi in the west, and Dosso in the southwest. ... read more