Coast to coast African floods affect 1 million

Forecasters were predicting on Tuesday further downpours in the coming days over much of Africa, where at least 270 people have already died from flooding and one million are affected.

"We anticipate that the situation will worsen," said Elizabeth Byrs from the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), adding that heavy rains were forecast in west Africa until Monday.

Torrential rain described as the worst in 30 years had resulted in floods stretching "from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea," Byrs said. Fears of outbreak of waterborne diseases have also been heightened.

Sudan was the worst hit of the countries in terms of confirmed deaths with 64 so far as a direct result of floods and 49 from cholera.

According to the country's health ministry, entire regions are exposed to outbreaks of malaria, cholera, meningitis and other waterborne diseases.

On the other side of the continent, Ghana has suffered 32 deaths and more than a quarter of a million people have been affected in the north where cases of cholera, dysentery and diarrhea have been diagnosed.

Authorities in Ghana have declared a state of emergency and launched an appeal for international aid.

UN disaster experts arrived in Ghana's flood-stricken area of Tamale for an assessment mission to help establish a humanitarian coordination center.

According to tolls, 41 people have died in Nigeria, 22 in Burkina Faso, 20 in Togo, 18 in Rwanda, a dozen in Niger, four in Somalia and Morocco, two in Mauritania and one in Ethiopia.

According to OCHA, cited by local media, at least 10 people have died in Uganda and tens of thousands of people have been displaced. Some 50,000 households, or around 300,000 people in all are affected.

The situation is particularly critical in Uganda's eastern Teso region, especially in the districts of Katakwi and Amuria, where some 50,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

OCHA says contamination of water sources is widespread and there are fears of cholera outbreaks. Health centers in the affected areas are also experiencing shortages of critical drugs to treat malaria, diarrheal diseases and respiratory infections.

"The people most affected by the flooding in the northeastern part of Uganda are the same people who have endured 20 years of civil war and living in internally displaced camps for more than a decade," said Kevin Fitzcharles, head of the Uganda office of the British relief agency CARE International.

CARE also said it was providing relief to parts of Ethiopia where a dam collapsed due to the rains, leaving about 4,500 people isolated.

International aid organizations have launched appeals for humanitarian aid.

The UN's World Food Program appealed for US$60 million in aid for Uganda.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent launched an initial emergency appeal for US$1.2 million to help 60,000 people with relief aid in Ghana but warned that it was set to expand.

It said that "extensive, recurrent and devastating flooding" now affected 17 African countries, with Burkina Faso and Togo particularly hard-hit.