The death toll from flooding in Nigeria’s Niger state has surged to at least 117 people, with dozens still missing after the disaster swept through two communities in the north-central state.
Ibrahim Hussaini, head of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said on Friday that the flooding had destroyed around 3,000 homes. The figures mark a sharp increase from an earlier report of 21 deaths.
Flooding is common during Nigeria’s rainy season, which began in April. The country’s worst floods in more than a decade occurred in 2022, killing over 600 people and displacing 1.4 million.
Hussaini said the latest flooding began on Wednesday night and continued into Thursday morning, leaving residents stranded and many unaccounted for.