At least 117 people have died and several others are still missing after heavy flooding destroyed thousands of homes in Nigeria’s Niger state, an emergency official said on Friday.
The death toll is a sharp rise from Thursday’s figure of 21 people, Ibrahim Hussaini, head of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said, adding that some 3,000 houses were submerged in two communities in the north-central state.
Husseini Isah said that many people were still in peril as rescue efforts continued.
Torrential rains battered Mokwa late on Wednesday and lasted for several hours, washing away dozens of homes, with many residents still missing. A dam collapse in a nearby town caused the situation to rapidly deteriorate.
Nigeria is prone to flooding during the rainy season, which began in April.
In 2022, Nigeria experienced its worst wave of floods in more than a decade, which killed more than 600 people, displaced around 1.4 million, and destroyed 440,000 hectares of farmland.
The flooding incident in Niger state occurred on Wednesday night and continued into Thursday morning, Hussaini said, with some people still in the water.
