Flash flooding earlier this week in central Nigeria killed more than 150 people, a local disaster response spokesperson 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 away from the town of Mokwa, the epicentre of the floods, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, a spokesperson for the Niger state emergency management agency, told AFP.
As Husseini warned that the toll could still rise鈥攚ith bodies being swept away down the powerful Niger River鈥擯resident Bola Tinubu said that search-and-rescue operations were underway, with the disaster response being aided by security forces.
According to the figures shared by Husseini, 151 people were killed, 3,018 were displaced, 265 houses were 鈥榗ompletely destroyed鈥� and two bridges were washed away in the busy, rural market town.
Tinubu, in an overnight post on social media, added that 鈥榬elief materials and temporary shelter assistance are being deployed without delay鈥� 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 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.
鈥楽ome bodies were recovered from the debris of collapsed homes,鈥� 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: 鈥榃e lost at least 15 from this house. The property [is] gone. We lost everything.鈥�
The national emergency management agency said that the Nigerian Red Cross, local volunteers, the military and police were all helping in the response.
