Native officers warn the demise toll might rise after heavy rainfall flooded a market city in Niger State.
At the least 111 folks have been killed after heavy flooding submerged the market city of Mokwa in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State, destroying hundreds of houses, in line with an area official, in a rustic beset by lethal storms yearly.
Head of the operations workplace in Minna, capital of Niger State, Husseini Isah, mentioned on Friday that many individuals had been nonetheless in peril as rescue efforts proceed.
A Niger State Emergency Administration Company (SEMA) spokesman, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, advised the AP information company, “extra our bodies have simply been introduced and are but to be counted, however we have now not less than 111 confirmed (useless) already.”
Torrential rains battered Mokwa late on Wednesday and lasted for a number of hours, washing away dozens of houses, with many residents nonetheless lacking. A dam collapse in a close-by city brought on the state of affairs to quickly deteriorate.
Mokwa is a key assembly and transit level for merchants from the south and meals growers within the north of the nation.
Within the city, Mohammed Tanko, 29, a civil servant, advised reporters that he misplaced not less than 15 folks from the home he grew up in.
“The property [is] gone. We misplaced every little thing,” Tanko mentioned.
For fisherman Danjuma Shaba, 35, the floods destroyed his home, forcing him to sleep in a parking lot.
“I don’t have a home to sleep in. My home has already collapsed,” Shaba advised AFP.
As Nigeria’s wet season begins, usually lasting for six months, the Nigerian Meteorological Company has warned of doable flash floods in 15 of Nigeria’s 36 states, together with Niger State, between Wednesday and Friday.
Nevertheless, scientists have warned that the results of climate change are already being felt, as excessive climate patterns have gotten extra frequent.
The heavy rainfall causes issues for Nigeria yearly because it destroys infrastructure and is additional exacerbated by insufficient drainage.
In September 2024, torrential rains and a dam collapse within the northeastern Maiduguri metropolis brought on extreme flooding, killing not less than 30 folks and displacing thousands and thousands.
Final yr, greater than 1,200 folks had been killed and 1.2 million displaced in not less than 31 out of 36 states, in one of many nation’s worst floods in many years, in line with the Nationwide Emergency Administration Company.
