More than 60 people have died as a result of a heatwave in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, in Nigeria, medical sources say.

Seasonal rains have failed to come for two months, and temperatures above 50 degrees centigrade have been recorded over the last few weeks.

The poor are more likely to be affected by the heat

The actual death toll could be much higher as many families fail to officially register their dead before burying them.

The BBC's Dan Isaacs in Lagos says that in a city of more than a million people, fresh food and water are vital if disease is not to spread further.

Slight respite

Maiduguri, in Borno state, lies on the edge of the Sahara desert.

This has been one of the hottest and driest spells in the northeast in living memory, and other states in northern Nigeria are already affected by desertification.

Doctor Ibrahim Kida, director of the specialist hospital in Maiduguri, told our correspondent that at least 60 people are confirmed to have died of heat stroke, caused by intense heat, in the last week alone.

Most people in Maiduguri are Muslims and, traditionally, they bury their dead within 24 hours.

The situation is made worse by air-borne infections as many people sleep in the open due to the heat, not far from heaps of rubbish in the streets.

Our correspondent says that at the best of times, Maiduguri is short of water, but the situation is now critical and people suffering from heat exhaustion do not have access to clean water.

Some respite came on Monday with the first moderate rains of the season.

But reservoirs are empty, the earth is parched and the drought is likely to severely affect crop planting.