Mali Declares State Of National Disaster Over Flooding

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali declared a state of national disaster on Friday over floods that have killed 30 people and affected over 47,000 others since the start of the rainy season, the council of ministers said in a statement.

Most years, the West and Central Africa region sees floods of varying severity between June and September, when rains sweep through the Sahel belt of countries along the southern fringes of the Sahara desert.

Flooding has affected over 716,000 people across the region so far this season, which is forecast to bring above-average cumulative rainfall, the U.N's humanitarian agency OCHA said in mid-August.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Sandra Maler)