Saturday, May 31, 2025 - Flash floods that ravaged
two communities in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State have killed 115
people, an emergency services official said on Friday, saying the toll is
expected to rise.
“We have so far recovered 115 bodies and more are expected to be recovered because the flood came from far distance and washed people into the River Niger," Ibrahim Audu Husseini, Niger SEMA spokesman told AFP.
"Downstream, bodies are still being recovered. So, the
toll keeps rising”.
Flooding after torrential rains late on Wednesday washed
away more than 50 homes in the city of Mokwa in central Niger, drowning
residents with many missing, according to the Niger State Emergency Management
Agency (SEMA).
Teams of rescuers continued to search for missing residents
on Friday.
“We expect the toll to rise considerably because there are different rescuers at different locations,” Husseini said.
He said many were still missing, citing a family of 12 where
only four members have been accounted for.
“Some bodies were recovered from the debris of collapsed
homes,” he said, adding that his teams would need excavators to retrieve
corpses from under the rubble.
Earlier on Friday, an official coordinating the search
and rescue operation, Hussaini Isah, had given a provisional toll of 88.
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency had warned of possible
flash floods in 15 of Nigeria’s 36 states, including Niger state, between
Wednesday and Friday.
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