Heavy flooding in Ivory Coast has killed at least 59 people, a government spokesperson says.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Amadou Coulibaly told reporters "the council deplores the particularly high death toll of 59 this year."
On Monday, floods and landslides triggered by days of torrential rain in the capital cities of Ghana and Ivory Coast left at least 24 people dead and more missing.
Searches of flood-affected areas are ongoing, and officials fear the toll could rise, Coulibaly added.
Entire buildings and roads were submerged in Accra, Ghana on Monday, cutting off access to several areas of the Ghanian capital and in the neighbouring city of Tema.
In 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.
Coulibaly urged residents to follow safety guidelines and leave areas designated as high risk by the government.
Deadly floods are common in parts of Africa, which is among the regions of the world most vulnerable to extreme weather events despite being responsible for a small fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Further heavy rainfall is expected along the West African coast in the coming days.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), around 7.5 million people are at risk from flooding.
with DPA
