Floods destroyed more than 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of rice in Niger's south-eastern Diffa region, AFP news agency reports the local governor as saying.

Nearly 3,000 tonnes of rice worth 717m CFA francs ($1.13m) have been lost as a result, Governor Mahamadou Bakabe is reported as saying on state television last night.

AFP adds that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said last month that flooding had already claimed 45 lives since June.

The rains destroyed nearly 17,400 homes and killed more than 33,000 heads of livestock, it said.