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A minimum of 3,018 individuals displaced and 265 homes destroyed within the floods in central Nigeria as extra rains are feared.
Greater than 150 individuals have been killed and hundreds displaced after floods devastated components of central Nigeria, native authorities mentioned, as rescue groups proceed to get better our bodies and seek for the lacking.
The flooding struck the agricultural city of Mokwa in Niger State following torrential rains that started late on Wednesday and continued into Thursday.
The dying toll has risen to 151 after extra our bodies had been recovered practically 10km (6 miles) from Mokwa, mentioned Ibrahim Audu Husseini, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Administration Company (NSEMA) on Saturday.
A minimum of 3,018 individuals have been displaced, whereas 265 homes had been “utterly destroyed” within the floods, he mentioned, including that many victims had been believed to have been swept down the Niger River, warning that the toll might nonetheless rise.
President Bola Tinubu prolonged his condolences in a single day and mentioned search-and-rescue operations had been ongoing with the assist of Nigeria’s safety forces.
“Reduction supplies and short-term shelter help are being deployed directly,” he wrote in a submit on social media.
“We misplaced all the pieces, the households. We don’t have wherever else to go, the property has gone,” Mohammed Tanko, a neighborhood, advised Al Jazeera. “We misplaced a minimum of 15 from this home.”
One other survivor mentioned: “I escaped with solely my nightdress. Proper now, I can’t even establish the place our house was once.”
Extra rains feared
Meteorologists warn that extra rain is predicted within the coming days, elevating fears of additional flooding throughout the area.
Flooding is a daily menace throughout Nigeria’s six-month wet season, however specialists say the frequency and severity of those disasters are growing resulting from climate change, unregulated development, and poor drainage infrastructure.
“Flooding has change into an annual occasion, between the months of April and October,” Ugonna Nkwunonwo, a flood danger analyst on the College of Nigeria, advised Al Jazeera.
He warned that whereas flood dangers have lengthy been recognized, “there has not been a lot political energy to implement this alteration”.
“This flooding is a results of local weather change, which is affecting the frequency and depth of rainfall,” he mentioned. “The quantity of rain you anticipate in a yr might in all probability are available in one or two months, and individuals are not ready for that sort of rainfall.”
Final yr, greater than 1,200 individuals died and as much as two million had been displaced by comparable disasters throughout Nigeria.
“This tragic incident serves as a well timed reminder of the hazards related to constructing on waterways and the vital significance of maintaining drainage channels and river paths clear,” the Nationwide Emergency Administration Company mentioned in an announcement.
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