ABUJA: Search teams fanned out on Saturday from the epicentre of deadly flash flooding in Nigeria, the Red Cross said, as the death toll from heavy rains in the north-central market town of Mokwa topped 150.

The sharp rise in the toll came as bodies were recovered nearly 10 kilometres from the town, where more than 250 buildings were levelled and two bridges were swept away, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, said.

Husseini said the toll could rise further, with bodies being swept down the powerful Niger River. Gideon Adamu, head of the Red Cross in Niger state, said that search teams were heading toward Jebba, on the opposite side of the waterway’s swampy banks.

Mokwa was hit by torrential rains on Wednesday night into Thursday, with the flooding displacing more than 3,000 people, Husseini said. There were 121 injured in hospital, Adamu said, and more than 100 people were missing.

Nigeria’s rainy season, which usually lasts six months, is just getting started for the year. Heavy rains and poor infrastructure lead to flooding that wreaks havoc every year, killing hundreds of people across the west African country. Scientists have also warned that climate change is fuelling more extreme weather patterns.

‘We can’t give up’

Roads were still inundated in Mokwa on Friday, an eyewitness saw, with Husseini saying his team would need excavators to reach bodies feared buried under the rubble.

Residents in the town, around 350 kilometres by road from the capital Abuja, were still searching for relatives. In some cases, families were missing several people.

“We can’t give up the search as long as there are families crying out,” said Adamu, the Red Cross chief. “If there were some bodies that were carried away by the flooding, we’ll find them in the farmland on the Jebba side.”

According to a tally provided by Husseini, 151 people were killed, 3,018 were displaced, 265 houses were destroyed and two bridges were washed away in the busy market town.

Mohammed Tanko, 29, a civil servant, pointed to a house he grew up in, telling reporters on Friday: “We lost at least 15 from this house. The property (is) gone. We lost everything.”

Floods in Nigeria are exacerbated by inadequate drainage, the construction of homes on waterways and the dumping of waste in drains and water channels. “This tragic incident serves as a timely reminder of the dangers associated with building on waterways and the critical importance of keeping drainage channels and river paths clear,” the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said in a statement.

Complicating the search for missing persons was the presence of a large group of travellers staying overnight in a Mokwa mosque when the rains hit, Adamu said. The building collapsed and it was still unknown where the people had been travelling from. President Bola Tinubu said the disaster response was being aided by security forces.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2025