Rescue operations underway after Nigeria flooding kills at least 150

ABUJA: Flash flooding earlier this week in central Nigeria killed more than 150 people, a local disaster response spokesman told AFP on Saturday, while displacing 3,000, levelling more than 250 homes and washing away two bridges.

The sharp jump from the previous death toll of 115 came as bodies were recovered nearly 10 kilometres (6 miles) away from the town of Mokwa, the epicentre of the floods, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, told AFP.

As Husseini warned that the toll could still rise -- with bodies being swept away down the powerful Niger River -- President Bola Tinubu said that search-and-rescue operations were underway, with the disaster response being aided by security forces.

Tinubu, in an overnight post on social media, added that “relief materials and temporary shelter assistance are being deployed without delay” in Mokwa, which was hit by torrential rains late on Wednesday through to early on Thursday.

Buildings collapsed and roads were inundated in the town, which is located more than 350 kilometres (215 miles) by road from the capital Abuja, an AFP journalist in Mokwa observed on Friday.

Emergency services and residents searched through the rubble as floodwaters flowed alongside.

“Some bodies were recovered from the debris of collapsed homes,” Husseini said, adding that his teams would need excavators to retrieve corpses.

He said many were still missing, citing a family of 12 where only four members had been accounted for as of Friday.

Mohammed Tanko, 29, a civil servant, pointed to a house he grew up in, telling reporters: “We lost at least 15 from this house. The property (is) gone. We lost everything.”

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said that the Nigerian Red Cross, local volunteers, the military and police were all helping in the response.

According to the figures shared by Husseini, 151 people were killed, 3,018 were displaced, 265 houses were “completely destroyed” and two bridges were washed away in the busy, rural market town.

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency had warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria’s 36 states, including Niger state, between Wednesday and Friday.

In 2024, more than 1,200 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced in at least 31 out of Nigeria’s 36 states, making it one of the country’s worst flood seasons in decades, according to NEMA.

Displaced children played in the flood waters on Friday, heightening the possibility of exposure to water-borne diseases, with at least two bodies lying nearby covered in banana leaves and printed ankara cloth.

Describing how she escaped the raging waters, Sabuwar Bala, a 50-year-old yam vendor, told reporters: “I was only wearing my underwear, someone loaned me all I’m wearing now. I couldn’t even save my flip-flops.” “I can’t locate where my home stood because of the destruction,” she said.