ABUJA, Nigeria — At least 111 people have died following devastating floods in the northern Nigerian town of Mokwa, as authorities warn that the true death toll is expected to rise in the wake of intensifying climate change and erratic rainfall.
Triggered by torrential predawn rains early Thursday, the floods swept through neighborhoods in Mokwa, a major agricultural hub located more than 300 kilometers (180 miles) west of Abuja, the nation’s capital. The Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency has not yet released the official rainfall total, but eyewitness reports and imagery shared online depict entire communities submerged, with only rooftops visible above the rising, muddy waters.
“This is catastrophic,” said Kazeem Muhammed, a Mokwa resident. “We lost many lives, and the properties, our farm produce. Those that have their storage have lost it.” Mokwa, which serves as a crucial trade center for farmers selling beans, onions and other crops to buyers from southern Nigeria, has been paralyzed by the deluge.
Officials from the Niger State Emergency Management Agency confirmed the initial death toll of 111, but warned more bodies had just been recovered and were yet to be counted. “We are still retrieving victims,” agency spokesman Ibrahim Audu Husseini told The Associated Press by phone Friday. “This is a disaster of historic proportion.”
Rescue efforts remain hampered by submerged roads and limited emergency infrastructure. Videos posted on social media show residents wading through waist-deep floodwaters, carrying children and salvaging food supplies, as entire villages have been left uninhabitable.
Climate experts have long warned that northern Nigeria is acutely vulnerable to extreme weather patterns, with prolonged dry spells during the dry season now followed by unusually intense rainfall during the brief wet season. These shifts are widely attributed to climate change, which has amplified both drought and flooding risks across sub-Saharan Africa.
Mokwa community leader Aliki Musa described the flood as almost supernatural in its scale. “The water is like spiritual water which used to come, but it’s seasonal,” he said. “It can come now and not again for another twenty years.” He noted that many villagers had no prior experience with floods of this magnitude and were unprepared for the onslaught.
Local officials echoed calls for urgent action to prevent future tragedies. Jibril Muregi, chairman of Mokwa’s local government, told Premium Times that the lack of proper flood-control infrastructure had contributed to the scale of the disaster. “This critical infrastructure is essential to mitigating future flood risks and protecting lives and property,” he said.
This week’s flooding in Mokwa is the latest in a series of weather-related disasters to strike Nigeria, where more than 54,000 people were displaced in a similar flood event last year. In September, torrential rains and a dam collapse in Maiduguri, in Nigeria’s northeast, killed at least 30 people and compounded a growing humanitarian crisis worsened by Boko Haram’s insurgency.
With millions of Nigerians already displaced by conflict and economic instability, the effects of climate change are now threatening to further strain national emergency services and deepen food insecurity in one of Africa’s most populous and agriculturally dependent regions.
As recovery efforts in Mokwa continue, families are left mourning their losses while fearing that more lives remain buried beneath the floodwaters. The disaster, officials say, underscores the urgent need for investment in climate-resilient infrastructure, early warning systems, and sustainable development policies in a region already buckling under pressure.
