Floods and landslides triggered by days of torrential rain in the capital cities of Ghana and the Ivory Coast have left at least 24 people dead, authorities said on Tuesday, as emergency workers continued to pull hundreds of stranded residents from submerged buildings.
Entire buildings and roads were submerged in Accra on Monday, cutting off access to several areas of the Ghanaian capital and in the neighbouring city of Tema.
At least 12 people have been confirmed dead in Ghana, including a mother and her child who were both swept away in the Achimota-Agbogbloshie district, Alex King Nartey, a spokesperson for the Ghana National Fire Service, told The Associated Press.
In the Ivory Coast, several days of rain brought flooding that left more than a dozen people dead, most of them in municipalities of Attécoubé and Yopougon in the capital, Abidjan, according to the Minister of National Cohesion Myss Belmonde Dogo.
Local media reported that at least nine of the dead were trapped under the rubble in the same area in the Mossikro neighbourhood following the rains that started on Saturday.
Videos of the floods in Accra showed residents swimming through neck-deep water to rescue trapped neighbours, while vehicles were abandoned on flooded roads.
Access to affected areas was "a big problem" for the emergency services, which had to request the help of the military, said Nartey. Several neighbourhoods remained partially flooded by Tuesday morning.
Ghana's National Disaster Management Organisation said emergency calls began pouring in around 7 am on Monday as residents realised floodwaters were entering their homes. "The whole place was flooded. It's alarming," said Mariam Dongyela Millah, deputy director of communications at the disaster agency.
The Ghana Meteorological Agency urged locals to prepare for more rain this week in Accra.
Deadly floods are common in parts of Africa, which is among the regions most vulnerable to extreme weather events despite being responsible for a small fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.