The heavy rains that have been falling since June in Niger, a poor and very dry Sahelian state, have left 45 dead and more than 226,000 victims, while several districts of Niamey, the capital, are engulfed by water, said Thursday the authorities. There were registered across the country 25,834 affected households totaling 226,563 people with "45 loss of life" as of August 24, 2020, said the Nigerien Minister of Humanitarian Action and Disaster Management in a press release.
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A previous official report of August 18, 2020 reported 38 dead and more than 150,000 victims. The most affected regions are Maradi (south-central), Tahoua and Tillabéri (west), and Dosso (south-west) and Niamey. According to the ministry, 20,201 houses, 1,167 huts, 64 classrooms, 24 mosques have collapsed as well as a dispensary. More than 4,290 head of cattle were decimated while 448 granaries, 713 drinking water wells and 5,306 hectares of crops were damaged. In Niamey, where several neighborhoods have been under water since Monday, the level of the Niger River - which had already greatly exceeded its alert level - rose again by several centimeters after heavy rains fell on Wednesday, noted a journalist from the AFP.
Dozens of residents in distress fled their homes Thursday morning, some swimming through flooded streets. Teams of firefighters crisscross the flooded neighborhoods in canoes to assist the victims. "We were up to now in a dry place, then a heavy rain arrived Wednesday night and made the waters rise which surprised us in the sleep" , explains, bundle on the head, Moussa Amadou, a resident of the Kirkissoye district, one of the most affected. Almost all of Niamey's million and a half inhabitants live on the banks of the river and some have even built their houses in its bed.
Third river in Africa, the Niger has a basin of more than two million km / 2, where more than 100 million people live, from Guinea to Nigeria. These floods are favored by the heavy rains which have been falling in Niger since June. In 2019, the floods killed 32 people and more than 226,000 victims. Despite its short duration, at most three months, and low rainfall, this country has been facing flooding for several years, including in the desert areas of the North. A paradox in this very dry state where poor harvests are usually due to drought.
