Floods wipe out homes and livestock in Niger

At least three people have died after four days of heavy rain flooded desert towns at the foot of Niger's Air Mountains, officials said.

As many as seven schools in the Agadez community at the base of the mountains, and almost 1,000 acres of Agadez farmland were wrecked after the downpour burst a dam four miles away, the United Nations and Nigerien government said.

"This home my husband left us was all we had," an Agadez woman with eight children said. "Now it is gone along with our food, our animals,” she told United Press International news agency. “Where do we go from here?"

Altogether, 7,000 households have been affected by the intense rains and 3,500 homes damaged, mostly in Agadez , local officials have said. The rains have also casued widespread damage to farmland and have killed animals.

It is the most intense weather that the commune’s mayor, Hamma Dilla, remembers in over 30 years he told the United Nations news service “But even that flooding was not as bad as what we are seeing now. This [destruction] is the result of … intense continuous rains and the tributary overflowing its banks.”

It is feared that the official death count is likely to rise. On the edges of Agadez commune, one of the most battered areas, school director Moussa Ibrah said that 1,200 livestock had died and all the homes had fallen down. “The official count is too low, “ he said. We are talking about dozens of deaths.”

A shopkeeper in front of the Agadez bus station, Abdallah Alal, told the news service that his shop was vandalized after it collapsed from the rains in the middle of the night. "This boutique was my only source of income. I sold my animals to do business.”

In the neighbouring commune of Tchirozérene, more than 70 homes and one school are completely destroyed, early reports indicate.

The secretary general of Agadez region and commune mayors have set up a crisis committee, which has formed 11 teams with village leaders to visit people’s houses to rate the scale of the damage.

Stranded flood victims are being taken by lorry to schools for temporary lodging and the local government has bought flour and water to hand out to victims.

The UN is planning in-depth evaluations in the coming days, according to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.