Over 20,000 people have been displaced from their homes after flooding in the Diffa Region of Niger.
Media in Niger, quoting officials from the Diffa Region, said the Komadougou river in Niger broke its banks in early October, forcing 23,000 people to flee their homes.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Niger warned on 18 October that levels of the Komadougou in Diffa were more than 60cm above alert stage.
Across the region crops, farmland and homes have suffered damage. Some villages on the outskirts of the city of Diffa have been completely submerged.
Flooding was seen in Niger as early as June this year, but worsened from September, severely affecting communities in the regions of Maradi, Zinder and Agadez, as well as Dosso and the capital Niamey.
In a statement of 10 September, government authorities said that that the ongoing floods had resulted in 57 deaths and affected 132,528 people.
By late September the situation had worsened further. UNOCHA reported (pdf) in late September that 16,375 houses had been destroyed and 211,000 people affected, in particular in the 3 regions of Zinder (80,534 people affected), Maradi (28,847) and Agadez (31,222).
UNOCHA said the worsening situation in September was mainly because of the heavy rains recorded in the Niger basin and the overloading of the dams containing waters in Burkina Faso and Mali.
Social Media
https://twitter.com/OCHA_Niger/status/1185127468950343680
#Debordement de la #Komadougou yobé causant une #inondation á #Diffa au #Niger @OCHA_Niger @WFP_Niger @ICRC @PresidenceNiger pic.twitter.com/JtUBxlZlJz
— Semas Elh Mamane (@elh_semas) October 18, 2019
