Ougadougou, Burkina Faso_(dpa) _ When teacher Aminata Sourl packed up her classroom in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso at the end of last term, she didn't expect to be back until the new school year.
But landlocked Burkina Faso was among the West African nations devastated by floods that killed 160 people and displaced over 500,000 at the beginning of this month.
Sourl was forced to join the crowds seeking refuge back at her own primary school, which occupies a raised patch of land on the edge of the city.
"As I locked the door last term I said to myself 'I'll be back in October when school starts again,'" she said. "But I've been sleeping on the classroom floor since the start of September."
Three weeks after the worst rains in 90 years hit the Burkinabe capital, many people are still sheltering in temporary accommodation.
The United Nations says 53,000 people are holed up in churches, schools and office buildings. A further 40,000 are staying with host families.
The flat plains of Ouagadougou is more accustomed to dry desert winds and droughts than heavy rain, so when 30 centimetres fell in under 12 hours last month, most people were not prepared for the consequences.
Houses, offices, cars and bridges disintegrated and eight people were killed. Aid agencies say it is the poorest people who were worst affected.
Sourl said her home was washed away by the floods.
"For me the obvious choice was to come to the school," she said. "Some of my pupils and their families are also sleeping here."
But with the new school year fast approaching, many of the homeless are being asked to move on.
"I don't have anywhere else to sleep," said Laurent Brober, a construction worker who has been sleeping under a desk since mid-September.
"I know how to build a new house for my family, but we don't have enough money to purchase land and materials."
The Burkinabe government has granted permission for people to rebuild their homes in non-affected areas, but funds are short.
The UN has launched an emergency appeal for 18.4 million dollars to help flood victims in the country, one of the most poverty-stricken in Africa.
"There is much more that needs to be done in order that men, women and children can get on with their lives in dignity," said Babacar Cisse, UN Resident Coordinator in Burkina Faso.
Other countries in the region were hit just as hard.
In Senegal, 30,000 homes were flooded, largely in suburbs built on dried-out swampland. There were minor riots as people expressed their anger at government ministers who holidayed in the south of France despite daily power cuts and inaccessible roads.
In Sierra Leone, fifteen people died in heavy floods in the hilly capital Freetown, while hundreds of acres of crops were destroyed in Niger.
Until mid-September, residents of north-eastern Mali thought they had escaped the worst of the region's rains, instead suffering a prolonged drought.
But the rains came late, taking the region from severe drought to severe flooding. Aid agency Oxfam has launched an emergency appeal to help farming families who lost crops in the extreme weather.
With each rainy season, experts on climate change express concerns about the future of low-lying cities like Dakar, Cotonou and Freetown. In 2007, at least 300 people died in severe flooding which lashed West Africa.
But in Ouagadougou, Aminata Sourl has only one thing on her mind -getting back to work.
"The thing I want most is for my pupils to be able to begin classes again," she said. "But ... how can they learn and get a good education when they and their families are eating and sleeping on the classroom floor?" dpa kt ml mt
