Niger floods force 23,000 from their homes
October 20, 2019, 8:00 am

Niger floods force 23,000 from their homes

Floods in southeast Niger have forced 23,000 people to flee their homes since early October, officials said Saturday. (File photo AFP)

Floods in southeast Niger have forced 23,000 people to flee their homes since early October, officials said Saturday, threatening a new humanitarian crisis in a region already wracked by Boko Haram extremist violence.

Heavy rains have caused the Komadougou Yobe river that flows through the semi-desert Diffa region into Lake Chad to burst its banks, inundating villages, flooding fields and damaging crops.

Two villages near the city of Diffa were “completely submerged” and 2,500 households have been forced to move, according to national radio the Voice of the Sahel.

Some 400 families were sheltering in a gym in the city, it added.

“We have been fighting for days to stop the water rising, but it’s not working,” Amadou Issa, a rice farmer, told AFP. “The sandbags we’ve been using to keep the water out are completely under water.”

Extreme weather events are common in Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries.

Between June and September 57 people were killed and more than 130,000 affected by flooding according to government figures.

The capital Niamey was hit badly in September, with the waters of the Niger River – the third biggest in Africa – rising to a level not seen in more than 50 years and swamping parts of the city.

Last year, drought and flooding led to food shortages in a crisis which, exacerbated by extremist violence, left more than 10 percent of the population needing humanitarian aid.

Niger, along with neighboring Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Mauritania is also struggling against escalating attacks by armed extremists.

According to the UN’s human rights agency UNHCR, the Diffa region is home to almost 120,000 refugees and 109,000 internally displaced people.

source:AFP

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BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
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Professor Riyadh Yousif Hamzah, President of the Royal University for Women, commented: “This initiative reflects our commitment to advancing women in STEM fields. We're cultivating a generation of creative, solution-driven female leaders who will drive national development. Our partnership with BENEFIT exemplifies the powerful synergy between academia and private sector in supporting educational innovation.”
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For his part, Dr. Humam ElAgha, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at the University, said: “BuildHer CityHack 2025 embodies our hands-on approach to education. By tackling real-world problems through creative thinking and sustainable solutions, we're preparing women to thrive in the knowledge economy – a cornerstone of the University's vision.”