Six largely overlapping stories from the past day that are related to, most recently, Friday's (updated to add the one from Al Jazeera):
Severe flooding across Africa has wrecked hundreds of thousands of homes and left many people vulnerable to water-borne diseases, officials say.
Scores of people have died, and much of the continent's most-fertile farmland has been washed away, in what is being described as a humanitarian disaster.
The UN said [that] more rain was expected, and warned that the need for food, shelter, and medicine was urgent.
Some 17 countries have been affected in West, Central, and East Africa.
UN spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said: "The rains are set to continue, and we are really concerned, because a lot of people are homeless, and infectious diseases could emerge.
"Some of the poorest countries, like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger - the poorest nation in the world - are badly affected."
The UN said [that] the floods could lead to locust infestations, and outbreaks of diseases such as cholera and dysentery.
Villages submerged
Countries in East Africa regularly flood at this time of year, but West African nations are much less able to deal with the deluge, the World Food Programme says.
"In Kenya or Ethiopia, these countries are facing floods every year, and year after year, they have set up some contingency plans," the WFP's Pierre Lucas told the BBC.
"In West Africa, the level of awareness is not the same, and the response capacity [is] really different."
Ghana has been hit badly by the flooding, with three northern regions being declared an official disaster zone, after whole towns and villages were submerged.
Information Minister Oboshie-Sai Cofie said: "It is a humanitarian disaster. People have nowhere to go. Some of them are just hanging out there waiting for help to come."
She said [that] the Ghanaian government had received considerable aid, and hoped [that] the situation would improve.
French military helicopters were helping relief efforts in nearby Ivory Coast, while officials in Togo were dealing with more than 60,000 [displaced] people and a wrecked infrastructure.
Houses collapse
In East Africa, the brunt of the torrential rain was felt in Uganda, Ethiopia, and Sudan.
The UN relief co-ordinator in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, John Clarke, told the BBC [that] more than 250,000 had been left homeless there.
In Uganda, where similar numbers have been affected, some villages have been completely cut off by the floods.
Joseph Amongin, a local chief in Magoro town which has been surrounded by flood water, said [that] houses were collapsing and roads were impassable.
The BBC's Sarah Grainger, in Magoro, says [that] people were using dug-out canoes [in order] to move around, and [that] many of the 7,000 inhabitants have lost their crops.
Musa Ecweru, the country's disaster-preparedness minister, said [that] the situation was "getting worse by the hour".
"Access to some communities is almost impossible. We will need boats and helicopters [in order] to deliver emergency interventions," he said.
The airlifting of food and medical supplies to affected areas is expected to start on Monday or Tuesday. The UN has diverted a helicopter from Darfur in Sudan [in order] to help with the effort.
In Ethiopia, deaths have been reported, and a massive food-aid programme has been set up, after flooding hit almost 200,000 people.
And Rwandan officials reported 15 deaths and 500 homes washed away since Wednesday.
Also from the BBC (from earlier)...
The UN is warning of fresh rains and outbreaks of water-borne disease across Africa, where flash floods have already affected more than one million people.
Scores of people have died and hundreds of thousands have been displaced by the floods that have submerged much of the continent's most-productive farmland.
The UN said [that] there was an urgent need for food, shelter, and medicine.
At least 14 countries have been hit in West, Central, and East Africa by some of the worst rains in living memory.
UN spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said: "The rains are set to continue, and we are really concerned, because a lot of people are homeless and infectious diseases could emerge."
"We have 500,000 people affected in 12 countries in West Africa, and also in East Africa - in Sudan and Ethiopia.
"Some of the poorest countries, like Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger - the poorest nation in the world - are badly affected," Ms Brys told the BBC.
The UN said [that] the floods could lead to locust infestations and outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery.
'Dire' situation
One of the worst-hit areas is Uganda, where up to 400,000 people have been affected by the country's heaviest rains for 35 years.
At least nine people are reported to have died, and government minister Musa Ecweru said [that] the situation "borders [on] a crisis".
The BBC's Sarah Grainger arrived in Magoro in Katakwi district by helicopter. She described inundated roads and fields, and said [that] people were using dug-out canoes [in order] to move around.
She says [that] many of the 7,000 inhabitants have lost their crops, and [that] food security is now one of the biggest issues.
The airlifting of food and medical supplies to affected areas is expected to start on Monday or Tuesday. The UN has diverted a helicopter from Darfur in Sudan [in order] to help with the effort.
In Ethiopia, deaths have been reported, and a massive food-aid programme has been set up, after flooding hit almost 200,000 people.
In West Africa, Ghana has been hit hard, with at least 20 people killed and about 400,000 people made homeless.
The floods have submerged land which produces food for the entire country. President John Kufuor has declared the north of his country a disaster zone.
George Azi Amoo, co-ordinator of Ghana's disaster management body, told the BBC: "Some villages and communities have now been totally wiped off the map of Ghana."
He said [that] food and clothing were being distributed, and that the navy had sent two boats to help ferry people to safety.
In neighbouring Togo, some 34,000 people have been displaced and the infrastructure has suffered major damage, after rains demolished 100 bridges and seven dams.
Dozens are also reported dead in Sudan, which has suffered some of the worst floods in living memory. The death toll may rise, as much of the affected area is inaccessible except by air.
Officials in northern Rwanda said [that] 15 people had died there and 500 homes had been destroyed since Wednesday.
From the CBC...
Torrential rain has flooded massive tracts of land in 14 African countries in recent weeks, affecting about a million people, UN officials say.
The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says [that] 500,000 people are facing hardship because of flooding in West Africa, while roughly the same number of people in central and eastern countries need relief aid to help them cope.
Sudan is one of the worst-affected countries. Runoff waters from 10 per cent of Africa's land mass funnel down through southern Sudan and into the Nile River.
Flooding has left several-hundred-thousand homeless and 64 people dead in southern Sudan, the UN says.
Water-borne diseases like cholera are adding new perils to the misery. A cholera epidemic spread by floods is blamed in the deaths of at least 49 Sudanese in recent weeks, according to the World Health Organization.
At least nine deaths have been reported in eastern Uganda, where the UN says rainfall since July has been the heaviest in 35 years.
In Rwanda, 15 people have died from flooding since Wednesday, according to the agency.
The British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Saturday that not a single country in West, Central, and East Africa has been unaffected by the torrential rain.
There are also been reports of flood-related deaths or homeless people in Burkina Faso, Togo, and Ghana, as well as Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Liberia, Chad, Senegal, Kenya, and Mali.
From DPA...
(An earlier version is also still available.)
Severe rainfall has led to flooding and damaged crops in at least 14 countries across western and eastern Africa, bringing chaos affecting an estimated 1 million people, reports said [on] Saturday. The floods had affected at least 500,000 people in West Africa and another half a million in Sudan alone, according to Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
At least 20 people were killed in Ghana, where flooding left more than 400,000 homeless, and a state of emergency was declared in parts of the country.
The floods have hit large areas of the land producing food for the entire country, destroying crops and livestock, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported.
A spokesman for the crisis centre in Ghana said [that] some villages and settlements had been wiped off the map as a result of the floods, according to the BBC.
In Uganda and Ethiopia, tens of thousands had to leave their homes at risk from rising water levels.
The flooded areas were now at risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera, and food and medicines were scarce, officials and aid organizations warned.
The UN also said [that] the floods also brought about the threat of a potential locust invasion.
Urgently needed rain in African countries previous threatened by drought fell heavier and for longer than in previous years, with people in some countries where it has not rained for years having to flee flooding.
From the AP...
(An earlier version is also still available.)
Torrential downpours and flash floods across Africa have submerged whole towns and washed away bridges, farms, and schools. This summer's rains have killed at least 150 people, displaced hundreds of thousands, and prompted the U.N. to warn of a rising risk of disease outbreaks.
In eastern Uganda, nine people have been reported killed and 150,000 have been made homeless since early August. Another 400,000 — mainly subsistence farmers — have lost their livelihoods, after their fields were flooded or roads washed away and the rains, are forecast to worsen in the next month.
"The problem is getting worse by the hour," said Uganda's Minister for Relief and Disaster Preparedness Musa Ecweru, who spent Saturday viewing the affected areas by plane. "Access to some communities is almost impossible. We will need boats and helicopters [in order] to deliver emergency interventions," he added.
"In some places, the water is the same color as the earth, so [that] when you look at it, you think [that] it is a field, then you realize [that] it's water," Ecweru said.
On the other side of the continent, Ghana in west Africa has also been heavily hit. Three regions in the north, the country's traditional breadbasket, have been declared an official disaster zone, after whole towns and villages were submerged. Torrential rains between July and August killed at least 18 people and displaced a quarter of a million, Information Minister Oboshie-Sai Cofie said [on] Saturday.
"It is a humanitarian disaster. People have nowhere to go. Some of them are just hanging out there, waiting for help to come at a point," Cofie said. The Ghanian government had received considerable aid, she said.
More than a million people across at least 17 countries have been affected, said Elisabeth Byrs of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. People need clean water, after their normal sources were contaminated, and emergency food and shelter, after fields and houses were washed away.
"The rains are set to continue, and we are really concerned about the situation, because a lot of people are homeless, and infectious diseases could emerge," Byrs said by phone from Geneva.
It is difficult to say how much rain has fallen; few African countries have meteorological services, and those that do only offer forecasting, lacking the staff and infrastructure to track weather in remote areas.
Governments say [that] tens of thousands need aid in Kenya and Ethiopia, which was devastated by flooding last year as well.
In Sudan, refugees who had just returned at the end of a brutal civil war had to flee their homes again through waist-high waters in what the government called "the worst floods in living memory." So far, 119 people have died and tens of thousands been made homeless since the flooding began in mid-June, but the figure may be higher, as much of its vast swampland is inaccessible except by air.
In the tiny west African nation of Togo, 20 people are dead and 66,000 displaced after a deluge washed away 100 bridges and seven dams in the last week. The waters also destroyed 46 schools and some college buildings, forcing authorities to postpone the start of the school year.
French military helicopters from the peacekeeping mission in nearby Ivory Coast, which has also been affected, have been deployed [in order] to help airlift government-provided food and medical supplies to the needy.
In Burkina Faso, Amade Belem, who heads the country's national emergency-management agency, said [that] maize and millet farms were ruined.
"Our main concern is rehousing the population. We need food and medical supplies, because it goes without saying that the conditions in which these people are living, there will be no shortage of disease," Belem said.
Five of the country's 13 regions have been affected, and local media say [that] the floods are the worst here since 1954.
In the oil giant of Nigeria, 68 people have died and 50,000 are affected, according to the Red Cross. Even the desert nations of Niger, Mali, and Mauritania have been hit.
In some parts of Africa, officials say, deforestation has exacerbated the problem.
Charles Ngiratware, the mayor of western Nyabihu district in Rwanda, said [that] nearby Gishwati forest used to hold in far more floodwater, and [that] flash floods were not common. It was about 21,000 hectares, or 52,000 acres, in 1981, but pressure to clear land for farming means [that] it was only about 1,500 hectares — 3,700 acres — by 2002.
"The reason [that] the rains devastated this district is because of the deforestation of Gishwati natural forest," he said. Fifteen people, mainly women and children, have drowned after flash floods in his district this week.
International aid agencies are calling for more help as floods continue to devastate large areas of Africa.
Dozens have died, and an estimated one million people have been affected by the prolonged rains.
In the east of the continent, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Uganda are the worst-hit countries, with at least 87 people dead. Sudan, Kenya, and Rwanda have also been affected.
After days of heavy rain, tributaries that flow into the Nile have burst their banks, flooding villages in Uganda's Lira district.
The heaviest rainfall in 35 years has displaced at least 150,000 people in eastern Uganda, and, according to authorities, the rain has been "worsening by the hour".
Crops destroyed
Rising flood waters have resulted in as many as 400,000 people losing their livelihoods due to crops being destroyed, Musa Ecweri, the state minister for relief and disaster preparedness, said.
Nine peope died after being washed away by floodwater or struck by lightning during violent storms.
Ecweru said [that] the death toll was expected to rise, with rain still falling across large areas of the region.
Niels Scott, from the International Federation [of] the Red Cross in Geneva, told Al Jazeera: "We've already started... to provide shelter equipment, mosquito nets, and tarpaulin.
"Many of them have lost their houses... they've lost grain stores, they've lost their livelihoods.
"They're looking at a very grim six months. They've got the immediate future to worry about, and then they've... got to prepare for the next growing season."
Landslides
Aid organisations have stepped up efforts to get food and clean water to villagers, but landslides triggered by additional rainfall have washed away roads, and aid access is currently limited, officials said.
Gilbert Buzu of the World Food Programme, said: "You will find water flowing over the bridge, and in some areas people are using dugout boats to cross the bridge and, of course, that makes it very impossible for the trucks to move through."
The UN is expected to send helicopters and boats to boost relief efforts.
Ethiopia, Rwanda and Sudan are also affected, with hundreds of thousands now at risk of water-borne disease.
Ghana floods
In West Africa, 12 countries are flood-affected, with Ghana and Nigeria sustaining the heaviest damage.
Eighteen people are reported to have been killed after floods hit dozens of villages in northern Ghana.
Local residents said [that] the death toll may rise further.
More than 250,000 people have reportedly lost their houses in the floods.
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