Twenty-two people died and thousands were left homeless in Niger after torrential rains caused heavy flooding, authorities said.
"As of August 6, 49,845 people have been affected... and unfortunately we have recorded 22 deaths," Niger's minister for humanitarian action, Laouan Magadji, told public television late Wednesday.
The floods have destroyed more than 3,000 homes and nearly 4,000 hectares of crops, the minister said.
Livestock has also been lost and drinking water supplies have been affected.
The southern regions of Maradi and Diffa are among the worst hit, and some 2,000 people in the capital Niamey have been left homeless after heavy rains earlier this week, said the minister, AFP reported.
He said the government and charities have already distributed food, clothing and mosquito nets to those in need.
The deaths come after the United Nations aid chief raised alarm in June over a worsening food crisis in the Sahel region that has sent malnutrition rates skyrocketing to their worst level since 2012.
Comment: "This year's rain is just extraordinary," Katiellou Lawan Gaptia, head of meteorology at Niger's Met Office
said. "In Niamey alone, the season's rainfall has increased by 84 percent since 2010."
Comment: There is barely a crop or livestock on the planet that isn't being affected by these shifts in seasons and extreme weather patterns: