Niger: the flood toll increases in the Agadez region
Cars drifting on the Niger River, near Niamey, after torrential rains, September 9, 2020. Boureima HAMA / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Almost 350,000 people have been affected by the torrential rains in the country.
This is particularly the case in the North, 950 km from Niamey, where the Agadez region concentrates nearly a third of the victims.
The capital of the same name has been strongly affected.
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It has rained almost every day since September 30 in the Agadez region, human and material damage continues to increase.
"
Market
gardeners, our gardens are gone,"
explains the president of the regional council of Agadez Mohammed Anako, joined by
Victor Mauriat
, from the Africa service of RFI.
Houses have fallen.
Animals are transported by flow from the beds
.
"
The banks were submerged by the floods of the
kori,
these small rivers coming from the mountains, around which the stockbreeders but also the market gardeners were established.
"
The kori won everything,"
notes Ibrahim Asalek of the Nigerien NGO HED-Tamat.
This will be a big shortfall for many people in the municipalities like here next to Agadez.
"
Slow relief
The roads, often blocked and impassable, slow down the aid process.
In addition, the group of firefighters in the city was also surprised by the speed of the flood.
"
This year, it is really a disaster," said
the commander of the goupement, Aboubakar Biga.
The amount of water that has fallen here in Agadez and the flooding that has taken place ... it has never happened here before.
Even the group in which I am currently was flooded up to 1.20m ...
"
For the time being, it is still complicated to quantify the full extent of the damage, as the vast mountainous region of Agadez is difficult to access.
At present, firefighters are trying to identify losses, sometimes up to 400 kilometers around.
►
To read also: Rainy season: why so many floods in the big African cities?
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