DAKAR, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least 159 people have been killed and more than 600,000 others affected by the floods that begun inJune in West Africa, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Tuesday in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

    "These torrential rains have caused the deaths of 159 people notably in Sierra Leone. Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger and Sierra Leone were among the most affected countries,"the OCHA communique indicated while noting the heavy losses of property as a result of the deluge.

    In order to help the victims, the United Nations on Friday dispatched an emergence team to Ouagadougou, where half of the capital is affected by the torrential rains.

    A regional conference on human rights and the climatic change will be held in Lome, the capital of Togo on Sept. 15-16, OCHA said.

    This meeting is organized by the United Nations , the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Togolese government "to present a common position of West Africa "to the global summit in Copenhagen in December.