Senegal government under fire over flooding response

The Senegalese government came under fire on Monday for a perceived lack of response to weekend flooding that left at least four dead according to rescue workers.

The capital Dakar and major swathes of the West African country were drenched at the weekend with unusually heavy rains, even for this time of year when violent storms are expected.

News media and social networks were brimming with images of swamped homes and cars, as well as roads made impassable by the floodwaters.

Residents of Keur Massar, a densely populated Dakar suburb, were evacuated by canoe. Some residents staged an angry protest before being dispersed by security forces.

The rain fell nonstop from Friday, causing walls and entire houses to collapse, killing four and injuring seven, firefighters told AFP.

President Macky Sall came under harsh criticism, with the newspaper Le Quotidien asking "What have they done with the 750 billion CFA francs (1.14 billion euros/$1.35 billion)?", referring to a 10-year plan to fight flooding that kicked off in 2012.

Members of the opposition and civil society asked similar questions.

Abdoul Mbaye, a former prime minister, charged on Twitter that the plan was "intentionally abandoned" and the money was never spent on flood defences.

Sall was also heavily criticised for flying to Niger for a summit of West African leaders on the crisis in Mali, with the daily Vox Pop headlining: "Senegal is drowning, Macky flies to the summit".

The president tweeted out on Monday that he had asked his interior minister to set in motion an emergency disaster plan.

Sudan floods threaten ancient archaeological gem
Khartoum (AFP) Sept 7, 2020 - Rising Nile floodwaters are threatening to swamp an ancient archaeological site in Sudan, after some of the highest ever recorded river levels, archaeologists said Monday.

Teams have set up sandbag walls and are pumping out water to prevent damage at the ruins of Al-Bajrawiya, once a royal city of the two-millenia-old Meroitic empire, said Marc Maillot, head of the French Archaeological Unit in the Sudan Antiquities Service.

"The floods had never affected the site before," Maillot said.

The area includes the famous Meroe pyramids, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Farmers along the fertile banks of the Nile, the world's longest river, depend on its annual floods.

But water levels have risen much further than usual this year.

"The situation is currently under control, but if the level of the Nile continues to rise, the measures taken may not be sufficient," Maillot said, adding that the site is usually some 500 metres (1,650 feet) away from the river.

Other ancient sites are also threatened along the Nile, according to Maillot.

Sudanese authorities last week declared a three month national state of emergency after record breaking floods that have killed at least 99 people.

Officials said they had recorded the highest waters on the Blue Nile -- which joins the White Nile in the Sudanese capital Khartoum -- since records began over a century ago.

Faisal Mohamed Saleh, Sudan's information and culture minister, visited the site to see the work being done to protect it.

The site, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) northeast of Khartoum, was a capital of an empire that controlled vast swathes of land from 350 BC to 350 AD.

Sudan's ancient civilisations built more pyramids than the Egyptians, but many are still unexplored.

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