Death toll in Niger floods rises to 195

195 people have died and more than 322,000 have been impacted by flooding brought on by severe rain in Niger, according to an official toll on Saturday.

The country of West Africa is currently experiencing one of its deadliest rainy seasons ever.

According to statistics from the Civil Protection Service reviewed by AFP, as of October 21, 211 people had been reported injured while 59 people had drowned and 136 had died in crumbling homes.

More than 263,000 people in Niger, which is located in the dry Sahel, were reportedly hit by floods during the rainy season earlier this month, which claimed 192 lives.

More than 30,000 dwellings, 83 classrooms, 6 health centers, and 235 grain stores have been damaged by the rains.

Maradi and Zinder in the country’s center, Dosso in the southwest, and Tahoua in the west are the areas most severely impacted.

In 2021, 70 people were killed and 200,000 people were affected. The death toll in 2020 was 73.

In neighbouring Nigeria, more than 600 people have died since June in the deadliest floods in a decade.

“According to all our studies, we can link these rains to climate change,” head of the national meteorological agency Katiellou Gaptia Lawan told AFP.

The “rainfall is intense”, while runoff water can no longer make its way into the soil because it has been “degraded by human activity”, he explained.