Niger

Like other African countries, Niger is exposed to floods and other natural hazards. In the fall of the year 2020, the Niger river triggered some of the worst floods in many decades affecting Niamey, other cities, and rural communities located on the shores of the river.

On 11 and 12 August 2021, UN-SPIDER and the National Directorate of Civil Protection of Niger (DNPC) carried out a virtual training course on the use of UN-SPIDER´s Recommended Practice for Rapid Flood Mapping. The virtual training course, carried out at the request of the DNPC, targeted nearly 45 staff of the Directorate, institutional liaisons of the Operational Centre for Crisis Monitoring and Management (COVACC), and participants from the Civil Protection Academy.

The training course focused on the use of the Recommended Practice developed by UN-SPIDER to map the potential extent of floods using Google Earth Engine and Sentinel-1 radar imagery. The course benefitted from the participation and…

The government of Niger, in partnership with the World Bank and a team of local volunteers, steps up the gathering of data on Niamey’s exposure to floods using drone and open source data to support disaster preparedness.

The initiative started with a team of volunteers, students and young professionals who used an open source mobile application to build a database on exposed people and assets in Niamey, the capital city. 

The team has so far gathered about 15,000 data point on household and infrastructure in the region. Drone African Service, a Nigerien startup has been providing training on the use of drones to acquire high-resolution images of exposed people and facilities. This is further analyzed and modelled for flood risk of the most vulnerable communities, which will be further shared with Nigerien government authorities on the risk data portal.

Drone Africa Services trained the team on digital cartography using OpenStreetMaps and a mobile…

Heavy rains and serious flooding at the end of August caused destruction of infrastructure in several parts of Niger. In the capital, Niamey, the authorities order thousands to leave their houses. Since the start of the rainy season in May, torrential rains and resulting floods in the country has caused more than 40 deaths, with more than 82,000 people affected. Last week, over 100mm of rain were recorded in Niamey.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) has requested the activation of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS) - Mapping for floods in Niger, which has been accepted. The first maps produced under activation have been delivered and can be accessed via the link below.

Due to heavy seasonal rain falls within the last months, Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone have been affected by floods. Overall more than 300,000 people have been impacted and 39 casualties reported. 

Since August 30, approximately 206,000 people in Nigeria have been affected by floods in Adamawa State. The floods were triggered by spillage due to damage at the Dadin Kowa dam in Gombe State, which in turn caused an overflow at Kiri Dam located downstream in Adamawa State. Further heavy rainfall worsened the flooding. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has been responsible for the response, humanitarian partners conducted rapid assessments in five Local Government Areas focusing on shelter, food security, sanitation, health and education. 

Since the beginning of the rainy season in June, floods and strong winds affected eight regions of Burkina Faso. Numbers for September counted eight casualties, 54 people wounded and further 28,781…

The Federal Government of Nigeria has introduced seven seismic monitoring stations in the country to reduce disasters associated with natural hazards. The stations have been completed, tested and are now ready for use.

Dr Abdul Bulamasaid, Minister of Science and Technology, said that the government adopted feasible measures to confront the menace posed by natural hazards like flood, earthquakes, landslides and erosion to humans, properties and the environment by putting in place the stations in Minna and Abakaliki, in Ebonyi State.

The stations also support the early warning system of the African country and may reduce the effects of earth tremors, rumblings and landslides.

Also the university and researchers will benefit from the new seismological stations. An easy access to the data will facilitate research activities and development of various departments and…

The telecommunication provider Orange Niver will be using satellite services from Intelsat to improve cellular network coverage in rural Niger.

The website Developingtelecoms.org reported: "Intelsat will provide C-band broadband capacity to Orange Niger on Intelsat 903 at 325.5º East. The companies have entered a multi-year agreement; when the Intelsat 35e satellite enters service, scheduled for 2017, Orange Niger will be able to seamlessly transition to the new satellite."

Brelotte Ba, CEO of Orange Niger, said: "The satellite-based solution will allow us to add new subscribers and introduce new services in a cost-efficient manner. More importantly, it will provide much needed reliable broadband connectivity, which will have a positive economic impact on the businesses and the communities we look to serve."

The International Charter: Space and Major Disasters has been activated three times in the past two days to provide satellite imagery and maps regarding floods in Niger, Senegal and Nigeria. West African nations experience torrential rains during their annual rain season, but this season has been reported as the worst in 50 years.

In Niger, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Civile et de la Gestion des Crises (COGIC) activated the Charter on 28 August after heavy flooding over the last few weeks caused by a severe rain season and the River Niger bursting its banks. It left 65 dead and over 100,000 homeless. The capital city of Niamey was struck by the flood waters from the River Niger, and Agadez City in the centre of Niger has also been affected. The Dosso region has suffered the worst effects of the floods, however, with an estimated ten thousand homes destroyed. Relief and international aid is being provided to help with the recovery.

Normally used to spot where people live, satellite images of night-time lights can help keep tabs on the diseases festering among them, too, according to new research.

Princeton University-led researchers report in the journal Science Dec. 9 that night-time-lights imagery presents a new tool for pinpointing disease hotspots in developing nations by revealing the population boom that typically coincides with seasonal epidemics. In urban areas with migratory populations, the images can indicate where people are clustering by capturing the expansion and increasing brightness of lighted areas. The researchers found the technique accurately indicates fluctuations in population density — and thus the risk of epidemic — that can elude current methods of monitoring outbreaks.

The team used night-time images of the three largest cities in the West African nation of Niger to correlate seasonal population growth with the onset of measles epidemics…