Harrowing images emerge after more than 100 die in major flooding

Torrential rain storms in central Nigeria have killed more than 100 people after floodwater submerged a market town in the centre of the country.

Heavy rain lasted for hours in Mokwa, and a nearby town’s dam collapse worsened the situation quickly.

Rescuers are still searching for survivors and finding more bodies today.

In videos and photos shared on social media platforms, floodwaters covered neighbourhoods, with rooftops barely visible above the brown currents.

Residents are also seen waist-deep in water, appearing to salvage what they can carry or rescue others.

Niger State emergency agency spokesman IIbrahim Audu Husseinit said at least 23 more bodies were found today alone.

‘More bodies have just been brought and are yet to be counted, but we have at least 111 confirmed already,’ he confirmed.

Mokwa, about 140 miles west of Abuja, is a major meeting point where traders from the south buy food from growers in the north.

Last September, torrential rains and a dam collapse in Nigeria’s north-eastern Maiduguri caused severe flooding, leaving at least 30 people dead and displacing millions, worsening the humanitarian crisis caused by the Boko Haram insurgency.

Nigeria often faces seasonal floods, particularly impacting communities such as Mokwa along the banks of the Niger and Benue Rivers.

Communities in the far north of the country, which experience prolonged dry spells worsened by climate change, also see excessive rainfall that leads to severe flooding during their brief wet season.

The chairman of Mokwa local government area, Jibril Muregi, suggested that poor infrastructure worsened the impact of the flood.

He appealed to the government to start ‘long overdue’ construction of waterways in Mokwa under a climate resilience project.

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