Floods kill at least 111 as northern Nigeria battles climate change, dry spells and heavy rainfall

Torrents of predawn rain unleashed flooding that drowned at least 111 people in a market town where northern Nigerian farmers sell their wares to traders from the south, officials said Friday as they predicted that the death toll would grow.

The Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency did not immediately say how much rain fell after midnight Thursday in the town of Mokwa, which sits in the state of Niger more than 180 miles (300 kilometers) west of Abuja, capital of Africa's most populous nation.

Communities in northern Nigeria have been experiencing prolonged dry spells worsened by climate change and excessive rainfall that leads to severe flooding during the brief wet season.

In videos and photos on social media, floodwaters covered neighborhoods and homes were submerged, with their roofs barely visible above the brown currents. Waist-deep in water, residents tried to salvage what they could, or rescue others.

Besides the 111 confirmed dead, “more bodies have just been brought and are yet to be counted,” Niger State emergency agency spokesman IIbrahim Audu Husseini told The Associated Press by telephone on Friday afternoon.

Mokwa, nearly 380 kilometers (236 miles) west of Abuja, is a major meeting point where traders from the south buy food from farmers in the north.

The chairman of the Mokwa local government Area, Jibril Muregi, told local news website Premium Times that construction of flood-control works was long overdue.

“This critical infrastructure is essential to mitigating future flood risks and protecting lives and property,” he said.

In September, torrential rains and a dam collapse in the northeastern city of Maiduguri caused severe flooding that left at least 30 people dead and displaced millions, worsening the humanitarian crisis caused by the Boko Haram insurgency.