Torrential rain and flash flooding left parts of Senegal's capital, Dakar, underwater on Monday, with other regions of the country also affected. The Ministry of Interior confirmed that several people have been killed or injured.

Among the dead were a 25-year-old woman and her 4-year-old child, who died when a wall collapsed in Matam, a region in northeastern Senegal. Some areas received more than 140 mm of rain in a single day, according to the reports. The downpours caused widespread damage to infrastructure and disrupted transport.

Authorities have warned that more rain is expected in the coming days. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye expressed his condolences to the victims' families and said the government is fully mobilized to strengthen vigilance in exposed areas.

The flooding comes at a sensitive moment. Senegal is due to host the Youth Olympics, which are set to begin on October 31, just weeks away. The Games are a major international event for the West African country, and damage to roads and other infrastructure raises questions about preparations in the capital and elsewhere.

Why this matters: Dakar sits on a peninsula on the Atlantic coast, and flooding during the rainy season, which typically runs through the autumn months, is a recurring problem there. Heavy rain can quickly overwhelm drainage systems, especially in densely populated neighbourhoods. The scale of the latest rainfall, and the forecast of further downpours, means the full extent of the damage and the number of casualties may not yet be clear. Images of the flooding in the capital have circulated widely, though the sources available for this report offered limited further detail on the affected areas or the response so far.