20120822
AFP
At least 31 people have been killed and nearly 100,000 more left homeless by severe flooding that has affected Niger since mid-July, the UN's humanitarian affairs office said Tuesday.

"Floods are affecting all regions of the country. We have a provisional death toll of at least 31 and we are nearing 100,000 homeless across the country," said Modibo Traore, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) branch in the Nigerien capital Niamey.

After visiting some of the affected areas on Monday, President Mahamadou Issou pledged 1,400 tonnes of food and 900,000 euros ($1.1 million) in aid but admitted it would not be enough.

"That will not suffice. I am calling on our partners to help us overcome this difficult situation," he said.

Opposition leader Seini Oumarou has criticised government "inertia" in handing out aid.

The southern Dosso region is among the worst affected in the land-locked country, said OCHA, with nearly 70,000 displaced people and three deaths last week.

OCHA warned that flooding will have "a negative effect on the food situation" in Niger, which sits in the semi-arid Sahel belt running across Africa, separating Sahara from savannah.

Millions of people are going hungry in the region after crops failed across a massive swathe of eight countries because of late and erratic rains last year.