In one of Nigeria’s deadliest flood events in recent memory, 200 people have been confirmed dead in Mokwa, a market town in the country’s north-central state of Niger, after a pre-dawn deluge on Thursday triggered rapid, large-scale flooding. Authorities confirmed the revised death toll on Sunday as rescue efforts were formally halted.
The flooding, described by survivors as both sudden and overwhelming, struck around 2 a.m., inundating homes across three communities within five hours. By sunrise, rooftops were barely visible above the waterline, and thousands of residents were wading through waist-deep currents trying to save what they could or each other.
Musa Kimboku, deputy chairman of the Mokwa Local Government, told The Associated Press that no more survivors were expected to be found. Emergency workers have shifted their focus from search and rescue to body recovery, with efforts underway to exhume corpses buried beneath collapsed structures to prevent disease outbreaks.
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“This is something we’ve never seen,” said Aliki Musa, a community elder. “Our people are not used to such flooding.”
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The region, a key food distribution hub for farmers in northern Nigeria, lies near the River Niger and has seen increasingly erratic climate patterns, marked by prolonged dry seasons and then overwhelming rainfall. According to emergency officials, the flooding destroyed at least 500 households, displaced over 3,000 people, injured 11 others, and swept away two major roads and bridges.
Ibrahim Audu Husseini, spokesperson for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, confirmed the scale of destruction and displacement.
In response, President Bola Tinubu issued a statement Friday night expressing condolences to affected families and directing federal agencies to launch an emergency response to accelerate relief and recovery efforts.
Jibril Muregi, chairman of the Mokwa local government, criticized the longstanding delay in building essential flood-control infrastructure. “The flood defense works we need have been overdue for years,” he told Premium Times.
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