At least 36 people have died in flooding in Niger since the start of the rainy season in June, most of them in northern desert areas, UN figures showed Tuesday.

Over that period, the floods have affected a total of 130,468 people, destroying 7,212 homes, 8,162 hectares of crops and 31,118 head of cattle, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

Hardest hit was Agadez, a major trade and business hub in the centre of the country where some 60,555 people have been affected.

With a population of 145,000 people, Agadez is known as Niger's "gateway to the Sahara". Last week, officials said the flooding had claimed 16 lives in and around Agadez, including seven in the town itself.

Other areas badly hit by the flooding included Maradi and Zinder in the centre, and Diffa in the southeast, the UN said.

But this year, the capital Niamey was almost completely spared, which some residents put down to the construction of dams that spared thousands of residents from the worst of the River Niger bursting its banks.

Last year, around 20 people had died in the capital during the rainy season, which lasts up to three months. Across the country as a whole, the flooding claimed 56 lives and affected another 206,000 people, UN figures showed.

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