Severe floods in Niger after months of heavy downpours have killed 159 people, authorities said Monday, marking one of the deadliest rainy seasons in history for a normally arid state.

The landlocked Sahel state's annual rainy season typically runs between June and August or September.

But in recent years, rainfall has become more intensive, accelerating the risk of deadly flooding in shantytowns.

Official figures shared with AFP show that so far this year, 121 people have died when their houses collapsed and another 38 have drowned.

Powerful rains have destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of houses, plus classrooms, medical centres, granaries and cattle herds.

Some 225,539 people have been affected and nearly 200 more injured, the figures showed.

The new toll is up from the latest update of 103 dead by early September.

The meteorological service has warned heavy rain will continue until the end of the month.

The floods have combined with regional droughts and jihadist insurgencies that have badly hit harvests.

Niger is going through a serious food crisis with health monitors warning more than 4.4 million people are facing "severe" food insecurity -- a fifth of the population.

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Air strikes, floods displace Nigeria jihadists
Kano, Nigeria (AFP) Sept 16, 2022
Hundreds of Boko Haram jihadists have fled a forest enclave in northeast Nigeria, escaping air strikes by the military and floods from torrential rains to seek shelter on Niger's side of Lake Chad, sources told AFP. Northeast Nigeria is facing a 13-year armed insurgency by jihadist groups which has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million from their homes. The violence has spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, with the jihadists maintaining camps in the vast ... read more