No fewer than 51 people died in the month of August alone in floods that ravaged Niger Republic after heavy rainfalls.
Severe flooding in Niger this month has killed 51 people and destroyed thousands of homes after torrential rains caused rivers to burst their banks, authorities said on Monday.
Authorities said no fewer than 26,000 houses have collapsed, killing 37 people, while 14 others drowned due to floods in August alone.
President Mahamadou Issoufou visited District 5 of the capital Niamey on Monday, which had been flooded by the adjacent Niger River. Issoufou said urgent steps were needed to support the 281,000 people affected by the floods across the country.
Largely desert, Niger is one of the world’s least developed countries.
In early 2020, over 2.9 million people were reported to be in need of humanitarian aid due to insecurity, the cyclical floods, epidemic diseases, droughts or displacement, according to the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.
In 2019, over 70,000 nationals were driven from their homes in November after a flood ravaged the country, prompting NGOs to come to the aid of families whose means of livelihood – mainly crops from farming -were ruined in the natural disaster.
Islamic Relief reports that the disaster claimed over 40 lives and destroyed nearly 5,500 houses in Dosso District and some parts of Tillaberi, where the river burst its banks and submerged two villages.