标签： Africa

ACCRA, Ghana – Days of unrelenting torrential rainfall have unleashed catastrophic flooding and deadly landslides across the capital cities of West African nations Ghana and Ivory Coast, leaving at least 24 people dead as emergency responders race to evacuate hundreds of trapped residents from waterlogged structures, national authorities confirmed Tuesday.

In Ghana’s capital Accra and the adjacent industrial port city of Tema, the floodwaters swallowed entire buildings, swamped major roadways, and severed travel access to multiple hard-hit neighborhoods by Monday. The Ghana National Fire Service has recorded 12 confirmed fatalities in the country, including a mother and her young child who were swept away by rushing floodwaters in the densely populated Achimota-Agbogbloshie district, said service spokesperson Alex King Nartey in an interview with The Associated Press.

Across the border in Ivory Coast, the sustained downpour has caused devastating flooding that killed more than a dozen people, the vast majority of whom lived in the Attécoubé and Yopougon municipalities of Ivorian economic capital Abidjan, stated Minister of National Cohesion Myss Belmonde Dogo. Local media reports confirm that at least nine of those fatalities were crushed under collapsed building rubble in Abidjan’s Mossikro neighborhood, after days of rain that first began saturating the region on Saturday.

Footage circulating from Accra captures the urgent, community-led response to the disaster: local residents wade and swim through neck-deep floodwaters to pull trapped neighbors to safety, while dozens of vehicles sit abandoned on inundated roads that have become impassible. For emergency teams, reaching cut-off communities has presented a major logistical barrier that forced officials to request additional support from the country’s military, Nartey explained. As of Tuesday morning, dozens of residential neighborhoods remained partially submerged.

Ghana’s National Disaster Management Organisation reported that emergency alert calls began flooding agency communications starting around 7 a.m. Monday, as alarmed residents realized rising waters were seeping into their homes. “The whole place was flooded. It’s alarming,” said Mariam Dongyela Millah, the agency’s deputy director of communications.

Looking ahead, the Ghana Meteorological Agency has issued new warnings urging local residents to brace for additional heavy rainfall across Accra throughout the rest of the week.

This disaster underscores a long-documented pattern of deadly extreme weather across much of Africa. Deadly seasonal flooding is a recurring hazard across many regions of the continent, which the World Meteorological Organization ranks as one of the globe’s most vulnerable regions to climate-driven extreme weather events – despite the fact that African nations contribute only a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change.

In Ghana’s capital Accra, catastrophic flash flooding driven by an unprecedented torrential downpour has left at least 13 people dead, with authorities warning the death toll could climb further as search and recovery operations continue across the devastated city. The extreme weather event, which dumped roughly 140 millimeters of rain on the metropolis overnight Sunday – nearly three times the highest single-day rainfall recorded in 2025 – has already caused widespread destruction, submerging entire neighborhoods, destroying hundreds of structures, and leaving thousands of residents displaced or trapped. According to officials from the Ghana National Fire Service, one of the lead agencies coordinating rescue efforts, more than 470 people have been pulled from floodwaters to safety so far, with emergency response teams from the police, military, and National Disaster Management Organisation also deployed across hard-hit low-lying areas. Social media footage circulating from the region shows cars fully submerged under muddy floodwater and collapsed buildings, confirming the scale of the damage that has forced local markets and businesses across the capital to remain closed, with some small commercial operations completely washed away. As teams work to reach trapped residents, national officials have issued urgent public safety advisories, urging residents in flood-prone zones to relocate to higher ground immediately and avoid all unnecessary travel through inundated areas. “Stay indoors if you are in a safe location,” a statement from the Ghanaian president’s office read. “Do not attempt to cross flooded roads, whether on foot or in a vehicle. If your home is being inundated, move immediately to higher ground and call 112 for emergency assistance.” Compounding the risk to public safety, the flooding triggered an unexpected large fire at a local rubber factory shortly after the downpour began. Utility providers Ghana Grid Company Limited and the Electricity Company of Ghana have also enacted a temporary power shutdown across flood-impacted parts of the capital, noting that rising floodwaters have compromised critical infrastructure at multiple substations, creating life-threatening hazards for both workers and residents. The Ghana Meteorological Agency has amplified government warnings, forecasting additional heavy rain across southern Ghana – where Accra is located – from Tuesday morning through the afternoon, raising the specter of further flooding and worsening damage. Agency officials have also advised residents to avoid sheltering under trees, steer clear of downed or exposed electrical lines, and never walk or drive through standing floodwater. For many local residents, the disaster has already upended daily life and destroyed irreplaceable personal property. Philip Mensah, one flood-affected Accra resident, told reporters that his decades-long collection of 1970s vinyl records was entirely lost to floodwaters. Patience Naa Adjeley Adjei, a local schoolteacher, described hours of futile efforts to hold back water from entering her home, saying, “I have mopped my room more than eight times. I can’t even step out because my room is flooded, and outside is flooded.” While the extreme rainfall is the immediate trigger for the disaster, experts and officials alike point to longstanding structural issues that amplified the flood’s severity. Accra, one of Africa’s fastest-growing urban centers with a population of over 4 million according to the World Health Organization, has long struggled with inadequate drainage infrastructure, with clogged public gutters and widespread construction of unpermitted illegal structures on natural waterways preventing floodwater from receding. Following an aerial assessment of the damage on Monday, Ghana’s president ordered the immediate demolition of all illegal structures built on waterways, noting that “the irresponsible actions of a few individuals end up putting entire communities at risk.” Disaster and climate advocates warn the event is far from unexpected, linking the increasing frequency of extreme flooding in the region to both accelerating climate change and unplanned rapid urban expansion. This is not the first time Accra has faced catastrophic flooding: in 2015, a similar extreme weather event triggered a fuel station explosion that killed more than 150 people. Ewurabena Yanyi-Akofur, country director for WaterAid Ghana, called for urgent systemic changes to prevent future tragedies, noting that “what we are witnessing in Accra is not an isolated weather event, but part of a pattern intensified by climate change and rapid, unplanned urbanisation.” She added that stronger urban planning and pre-event preparedness measures are critical to safeguard communities before, during, and after extreme weather events strike.

On Tuesday, thousands of South African protesters took to the streets across multiple provinces of the country, joining organized demonstrations demanding the immediate departure of all undocumented migrants from the nation’s borders. The demonstration, organized by several prominent local anti-illegal-immigration groups, set Tuesday as a non-negotiable deadline for all unauthorized migrants to leave South Africa, a framing that has put the country on edge amid lingering memories of violent unrest tied to similar past actions.

The organizing coalitions behind the protests, which include high-profile movements such as March and March, Operation Dudula, and Progressive Forces, argue that undocumented migrants exacerbate South Africa’s persistent systemic challenges. Protesters claim that migrants’ willingness to accept lower wage levels pushes native South African workers out of formal employment, while also blaming unauthorized immigration for driving spikes in violent crime and other social ills across the country. Bongani Cindi, one protester participating in the Johannesburg demonstrations, pushed back against common criticism that the movement is rooted in xenophobia, saying the groups are only raising legitimate concerns about domestic challenges. “We are not fighting anyone,” Cindi noted. “Our country has got a lot of problems. We have influx of illegal immigrants who are committing crimes that we can’t even take anymore. So we need them to leave us in peace, so we can sort our house.” Another Johannesburg protester, Nkele Thebe, echoed this sentiment, saying “After today, we’ll be dealing with our president and our nation. We don’t want an outsider to come interfere.”

This self-imposed deadline has not received any official recognition from South Africa’s national government, which has stressed that only formal state authorities hold the legal power to enforce the country’s existing immigration regulations. Ahead of the protests, President Cyril Ramaphosa held a closed-door meeting with leaders of several participating groups on Monday night, where he urged organizers and attendees to commit to peaceful, lawful demonstration action.

Despite the call for calm, security officials have taken extensive precautions to prevent a repeat of the violence that marred previous anti-immigration protests, when migrant-owned properties were targeted, foreign national businesses were vandalized, and public infrastructure was destroyed in unrest. South African police have deployed hundreds of trained officers to major protest hotspots, including the Gauteng provincial hub of Johannesburg, the KwaZulu-Natal coastal city of Durban, and Eastern Cape province, where past anti-immigration demonstrations turned deadly. Private security teams have also been deployed to at-risk areas to supplement official police resources. As of Tuesday morning, early reports confirmed gatherings of protesters in parts of Durban, as well as additional mobilization across North West and Free State provinces. In Johannesburg, many foreign-owned small businesses preemptively closed their doors ahead of expected protest activity.

The threat of renewed violence has already triggered a wave of voluntary repatriation among thousands of undocumented migrants, the vast majority of whom originate from neighboring southern African nations Zimbabwe and Malawi. Migrants have flocked to their respective national embassies and consulates across South Africa to request emergency transportation back to their home countries. Border crossing data shows a sharp increase in traffic at the Beitbridge border checkpoint connecting South Africa to Zimbabwe, with multiple daily buses carrying returning migrants departing South Africa. In Durban, thousands of Malawian citizens have already exited the country through a temporary repatriation center set up to process returning nationals.

As South Africa approaches an unofficial, self-declared deadline for undocumented foreign migrants to leave the country, anti-immigrant demonstrations continue to roil communities across the nation, prompting a new warning from President Cyril Ramaphosa that any protests must be carried out without intimidation, threats or targeted violence.

Tensions around immigration have mounted steadily in recent months, with growing public pressure pushing thousands of undocumented migrants from other African nations to flee South Africa preemptively out of rising fear for their personal safety. For many, the decision to leave has come at devastating personal cost: one undocumented Malawian migrant spoke to the BBC about feeling relieved to escape potential violence but heartbroken to leave his four young children behind in the country he called home.

Ramaphosa, who has repeatedly called for peaceful demonstration amid the unrest, has acknowledged widespread public demands for comprehensive immigration reform while pushing back against aggressive, exclusionary rhetoric targeting foreign-born residents. In his weekly public newsletter, the president reminded South Africans that a large share of foreign nationals residing in the country are lawful residents. “They work, study, raise families, invest in our economy and contribute positively to our society. They too are entitled to the protection of our laws and our Constitution,” he wrote. He added that constitutionally protected rights to protest and free speech do not extend to threats, intimidation, vandalism or violent action against migrant communities.

Official South African data estimates that more than three million documented foreign nationals currently live in the country, with tens of thousands more residing in the country without formal authorization. In the weeks leading up to this week’s deadline, thousands of vulnerable migrants have sheltered in temporary transit camps across the country, waiting for repatriation processing after fleeing their homes to avoid anti-migrant violence.

In Durban, the site of some of the largest and most violent recent anti-migrant demonstrations, authorities are currently dismantling the large white tent camp that has housed hundreds of primarily Malawian migrants, as buses prepare to carry the migrants back across the border to their home country. Among those departing was Nelson Mbewe, who originally moved to South Africa to find steady work to support his family back in Malawi. “But we’ve faced challenges – they’re saying we should go back home because we do not have the right documents,” Mbewe told the BBC. “It’s their country, so what can we do? That’s why we have accepted that we just have to unwillingly go back home.”

Mbewe also had a sharp message for South African protesters who use the slur “Makwerekwere” – a derogatory, xenophobic term for foreign African migrants – to describe people like him. “Think before taking any action,” he said. “Those of us that they call Makwerekwere were making a contribution to the development of their country because they don’t know hard manual labour is – all they know is begging.”

Since the current wave of anti-migrant protests began earlier this year, South African government data shows more than 12,000 immigrants have been either deported or have voluntarily repatriated to their home countries. Governments of origin including Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe have organized large-scale repatriation operations via both bus and air over the past month, with roughly 3,500 undocumented migrants volunteering to leave South Africa to escape rising tensions.

The repatriation process has already sparked a cross-border diplomatic dispute: South African authorities claim more than 500 of the repatriated Nigerians lacked valid documentation, a claim the Nigerian government has publicly disputed.

Authorized anti-migrant marches are scheduled to take place Tuesday in major urban centers including Durban and Johannesburg, alongside other smaller communities across the country. Law enforcement officials have warned protest organizers to prevent violent activity, confirming they have deployed extra personnel to respond to any potential public disruption.

Xenophobic violence targeting foreign African migrants has been a long-simmering crisis in South Africa for decades. The worst recorded outbreak of anti-migrant unrest in 2008 left more than 60 people dead across the country during a nationwide wave of rioting targeting non-South African residents.