Niger ups flood toll to 273 as historic mosque destroyed

 

A child wades through water on a flooded street in the Kirkissoye quarter in Niamey on Feb 9, 2019. [AFP]

Heavy rains lashing Niger since June have killed 273 and affected more than 700,000, authorities said on Wednesday, as the country mourned a historic mosque's collapse in the torrential downpours.

As of September 4 "the floods have caused the death of 273 people, 121 of whom drowned and 152 of whom died when their houses collapsed", Niger's interior ministry said.

The ministry also counted 710,767 people affected and 278 injured across the Sahel nation as a result of the extreme weather.

Besides flash floods and landslides, the downpours also caused the destruction of one of the deeply Muslim country's oldest mosques.

The iconic mud building in Zinder, built in the mid-19th century, "was completely wiped off the map yesterday after a massive downpour", resident Ali Mamane confirmed.

The mosque, a symbol of Niger's second city, once the capital of a powerful sultanate, collapsed on Tuesday, with videos of the tragedy circulating widely on social media.

Made from a mixture of earth and straw called banco, the mosque was Niger's second-most visited after the UNESCO-listed Agadez mosque, according to Niger's Ministry of Tourism.

"For hundreds of years, worshippers came from far and wide to pray there every Friday and on Muslim festivals," said El Hadj Mansour Kakale, a local religious leader.

"We were told that there were cracks in certain places, but we couldn't intervene because of the rain," an official told local TV.

The wider southeastern Zinder region has been among the hardest hit by the country's rainy season.

Lamenting the "significant human and material losses", disaster management and humanitarian action minister Aissa Laouan Wandarama said Niger was "going through an extremely difficult period because of the torrential rains and severe flooding".

Normally lasting from June to September, Niger's rainy season often exacts a heavy toll, with 195 people dying in 2022.

Scientists have long warned that climate change driven by fossil fuel emissions is making extreme weather events such as floods more frequent, intense and longer-lasting.