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NIAMEY: At least 38 people have been killed and more than 92,000 left homeless since June in disastrous floods in Niger, the United Nations have said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the deaths, up from a previous government toll of 14, followed torrential rains in August.

More than 26,000 livestock have been lost and more than 9,000 homes destroyed, the UN said, citing government figures.

Authorities and NGOs have already given out aid to more than 50,000 people, the UN added, with many of the homeless sheltering in schools and public buildings.

Despite being in the middle of the desert, Agadez in the north and Tahoua to the west are among the worst hit regions, along with Maradi in the south.

Niger is in the midst of its annual rainy season, having struggled to overcome a severe food crisis caused by drought.

One of the poorest countries on the planet, its

authorities are also struggling with 300,000 refugees and internally displaced people who have fled the Boko Haram insurgency in Niger's southeast and in neighbouring Nigeria.</s>A new armed group has threatened to launch attacks in the uranium-rich west African country of Niger to protest against the marginalisation of the minority Toubou population.

The arid country, one of the world’s poorest, is facing attacks from Nigeria-based Boko Haram jihadists and other groups near its rich uranium mines.

“The Movement for Justice and the Rehabilitation of Niger wishes to inform… that we will take up an armed fight to obtain our fundamental rights,” said a statement signed by Adam Tcheke Koudigan who described himself as interim president of the group.

“The government of Niger has remained completely indifferent to our more than legitimate demands,” he said, accusing authorities of turning a blind eye to environmental degradation near oil sites.

It accused the China National Petroleum Corporation of “making millions of dollars” while ravaging the environment and ignoring the welfare of locals.

“We are on the ground, ready… and when the time comes we will attack Niger,” he said in a video, surrounded by armed men, one of whom held a rocket launcher.

The pastoral Toubous are spread across Chad, Libya, Niger and Sudan.

But a government source dismissed the video as a “media stunt”, adding: that Koudigan was “insignificant and has no one behind him.”
Flooding in Niger kills at least 38 people and leaves more than 92,000 people displaced.