Local officials warn the death toll could rise after heavy rainfall flooded a market town in Niger State.
At least 88 people have been killed after heavy flooding submerged the market town of Mokwa in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State, in a country beset by deadly storms every year.
Head of the operations office in Minna, capital of Niger State, Husseini Isah, said on Friday that many people were still in peril as rescue efforts continue.
“The number keeps rising,” Isah told The Associated Press news agency. “But at the last count, 88 bodies have been recovered.”
A Niger State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) spokesman, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, told the AFP news agency earlier that he “expected the toll to rise considerably because there are different rescuers at different locations”.
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.
Mokwa is a key meeting and transit point for traders from the south and food growers in the north of the country.
In the town, Mohammed Tanko, 29, a civil servant, told reporters that he lost at least 15 people from the house he grew up in.
“The property [is] gone. We lost everything,” Tanko said.
For fisherman Danjuma Shaba, 35, the floods destroyed his house, forcing him to sleep in a car park.
“I don’t have a house to sleep in. My house has already collapsed,” Shaba told AFP.
As Nigeria’s rainy season begins, typically lasting for six months, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency has warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria’s 36 states, including Niger State, between Wednesday and Friday.
However, scientists have warned that the effects of climate change are already being felt, as extreme weather patterns are becoming more frequent.
The heavy rainfall causes problems for Nigeria every year as it destroys infrastructure and is further exacerbated by inadequate drainage.
In September 2024, torrential rains and a dam collapse in the northeastern Maiduguri city caused severe flooding, killing at least 30 people and displacing millions.
Last year, more than 1,200 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced in at least 31 out of 36 states, in one of the country’s worst floods in decades, according to the National Emergency Management Agency.