IAMEY, Niger (Reuters) - Meningitis has killed at least 249 people in Niger so far this year, a government spokesman said Tuesday.

The outbreak is a seasonal occurrence in Africa's arid Sahel region in the early months of the year.

Government spokesman Abdou Labo said the capital Niamey was hardest hit, with1,076 cases, including 77 deaths, of a total 2,815 cases diagnosed nationally by April 2.

The disease killed 488 people in 1999, out of 5,576 diagnosed cases.

Last week the government launched an appeal for international aid, saying it needed five million doses of meningitis vaccine.

The most deadly outbreak of recent years, blamed on faulty vaccine from Nigeria, killed 3,800 people out of 43,203 diagnosed in 1995.

Health officials in Benin said on April 1 that a meningitis outbreak in the northeast of the country had killed 15 people to date.