Floods leave thousands homeless in West Africa

NIAMEY, Sep 14 (Reuters) Floods have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes in Niger and Burkina Faso, leaving them prone to deadly diseases like cholera and malaria, officials in the West African countries said today.

Torrential rains and flash floods destroyed mud brick buildings and left more than 32,000 people homeless in Niger, one of the world's poorest countries on the southern fringe of the Sahara desert, the government said.

At least four people have been killed in the former French colony, with the highest rainfall since records began in 1923 registered in the oasis town of Bilma, more than 1,300 km northeast of the capital Niamey.

Meteorologists say the rainfall in Bilma, where more than 4,000 people were forced from their homes, has been more than in the last 10 years combined. In one night 63 mm fell.

''Aside from the loss of homes, the floods cause crop damage, the loss of livestock, illnesses such as cholera and malaria, and cut off remote regions,'' the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.

The government in Niger, where 3.6 million people -- more than a third of the population -- were left short of food last year following drought and a locust plague, was distributing tents, blankets, mosquito nets and medicine.

The United Nations World Food Programme was also providing additional food aid.

Annual heavy rains in West Africa help trigger outbreaks of waterborne diseases including cholera, flooding latrines and contaminating wells.

Cholera killed at least five people among 60 cases notified in the town of Zinder, 750 km (470 miles) east of Niamey, in the first outbreak in Niger since the rains began in July, medical sources told Reuters.

Cholera can kill within 24 hours by inducing vomiting and diarrhoea that cause severe dehydration, but it is treatable using a simple mixture of water and rehydration salts.

More than 10,000 people have also been affected by flooding in neighbouring Burkina Faso while parts of Mauritania, Mali and Nigeria had seen homes and crops destroyed as well as livestock drowned, the United Nations said.

''The populations affected have been temporarily accommodated in schools and administrative buildings, but the school term starts soon and we will have to put them in tents,'' said Amade Belem of Burkina Faso's national emergency management team.

Buildings, farmland and roads were destroyed in the region around Gorom Gorom, 300 km north of the capital Ouagadougou, while further west around Gnassoumadougou 1,000 hectares of arable land were swamped.

Reuters VJ VP0115