Floods kill 21, wreck homes as rainy season arrives in Niger

NIAMEY, Niger — Floods in mostly arid Niger have killed 21 people and affected more than 6,000 others during just the first few weeks of the African country's rainy season that runs through September, a government official said. Thirteen people were killed when their homes collapsed and eight died by drowning following heavy rains, Colonel Boubacar Bako, the director-general of civil protection, said on national TV on Thursday evening. From the Maradi region of south-central Niger, 35-year-old...