Recent floods in Niger have killed 91 people and inflicted significant damage on structures and farmlands.



The Nigerien Cabinet the director, Aghaly Abdoulkader, said on Friday that the deadly floods affected all eight regions of the West African state, the Associated Press reported.

Abdoulkader said even Tillabery, Dosso and Niamey had not been spared by the floods which have damaged farmlands, paddy fields, water resources, schools, healthcare centers, roads, bridges and dams.


According to him, the floods have also destroyed large quantities of food and washed away many cattle.

A major river surge inundated twelve irrigation schemes, sprawling on 3,050 hectares of land, in the Niger River valley.

The Nigerien official said the disasters call into question the efforts undertaken by the country’s authorities within the framework of socio-economic development.

In August, six weeks of flash floods, triggered by torrential rains, killed 52 people in Niger.

Nigeria has been hit by the worst flooding in eight decades. The aid agency Oxfam says upwards of 500,000 people have been displaced while the cholera rate is rising.


“Although rain is needed, this year’s excessive rains have destroyed thousands of houses and farmland, and families already struggling to survive have lost everything,” Samuel Braimah, country director for Oxfam in Niger, said recently.
He noted that the latest floods were the last thing Nigeria needed.

UNICEF has warned that one million children, one third of whom in Niger, are facing life-threatening malnutrition in West Africa’s Sahel region this year.

In the meantime, more than 5.5 million Nigeriens have been affected by drought.

Press TV