Nearly 30,000 made homeless by floods in east Burkina Faso

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) shakes hands with Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré during the annual Bastille Day m

Reuters

By RFI

At least 20,000 people are homeless and one man is dead after devastating floods in Burkina Faso this week, according to the government.

The man died while trying to save someone else, Prime Minister Tertius Zongo announced after an emergency meeting on Saturday.

Officials say that the figures are “provisional”, with several villages in the east of the country under water after two dams broke.

The rains lasted from Tuesday to Thursday but thousands have been driven from their homes and at least one village, Mani, is still cut off from the rest of the world with rescue workers unable to reach it.

“In villages where it is possible we are trying to house the homeless in schools and high up because everything is flooded,” provincial governor Théodore Kilimité Hien told the AFP news agency.

The air force would join rescue efforts on Sunday, he said.

In September 2009 eight people were killed and 150,000 made homeless by floods in and around the capital, Ougadougou.