(Adds details, quote, burst levee in Niger)
DAKAR, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Senegalese President Macky Sall
has activated an emergency aid plan after a seven-hour downpour
caused widespread floods.
Water Minister Serigne Mbaye Thiam told national television
that more rain fell on a single day on Saturday than the country
would usually see during three months of the rainy season.
"This is an exceptional rainfall. We registered 124
millimetres of rain. This is the cumulative rain we get during
the whole rainy season from July to September," Thiam said.
At least one person was reported missing due to the floods
in the central region of Kaolack, said Aissatou Ndiaye, mayor of
Ndiafatte.
Senegal's private radio station RFM said three children died
due to the floods, two in the southern Casamance region and one
in the northern Kanel region.
In Guediawaye district close to Dakar, volunteers raced to
scoop out flood water and debris from a heavily flooded health
centre.
"More than five communities use this health centre and we
are desperate and we don't know what to say and ask for help. We
have seen no mayor, no councillor, no firefighters. We have seen
no one," resident Momodou Baye Fall told Reuters.
According to forecasts by Senegal's meteorological agency
ANACIM, more thunderstorms and rains were expected on Sunday
across most of the country.
Heavy rains have been recorded in the Sahel regions of West
and Central Africa in the past week including in Niger, Nigeria,
Chad and Cameroon, leading to devastating floods that have
killed dozens and displaced thousands of people. In Niger's capital Niamey, a levee on the right bank of the
Niger River burst on Sunday following heavy rains, forcing
families in several neighbourhoods to evacuate, authorities
said.