Flash floods have claimed at least 115 lives and injured dozens in central Nigeria, emergency services reported today, with the death toll anticipated to increase.
Torrential rains from late Wednesday through early Thursday caused widespread devastation in and around Mokwa, a town situated on the banks of the Niger River in Niger state. Dozens of homes were washed away or submerged.
Rescue teams are continuing to search for missing residents. Ibrahim Audu Husseini, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, confirmed to AFP, “We have so far recovered 115 bodies and more are expected to be recovered because the flood came from far distance and washed people into the River Niger.” He added that bodies are still being recovered downstream, causing the toll to rise. Many individuals remain missing, with one reported case of a family of 12 where only four members have been accounted for. Husseini noted that some bodies were recovered from collapsed homes and that excavators would be needed to retrieve additional corpses from under the rubble.
Gideon Adamu, the Red Cross chief for the state, informed AFP that at least 78 people have been hospitalized with injuries. The Daily Trust newspaper reported that thousands have been displaced, and over 50 children from an Islamic school are currently missing.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has described the event as an “unprecedented flood.” Police and military personnel have been deployed to assist with the disaster response efforts. An AFP journalist in Mokwa, located over 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of the capital Abuja, observed emergency services conducting search and rescue operations, with residents sifting through the debris of flattened buildings as floodwaters continued to flow.
