Saturday, September 5, 2009

UN sends disaster assessment team to Burkina Faso as floods hit capital

AllAfrica.com via UN News Service: A United Nations disaster assessment and coordination team arrives today in Burkina Faso, where torrential rains that have soaked much of West Africa have killed at least five people and forced around 150,000 others to find alternative shelter.

The seven-member team is scheduled to begin assessing how it can help authorities respond to the most urgent humanitarian needs in the wake of the flooding that has inundated much of the capital, Ouagadougou.

Elizabeth Byrs, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters today in Geneva that the main university hospital in Ouagadougou has been flooded and its patients have had to be evacuated….

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