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

Torrents of predawn rain unleashed flooding that killed at least 111 people in northern Nigeria, officials said, predicting the death toll would grow.

Torrents of predawn rain unleashed flooding that killed at least 111 people in a market town where northern Nigerian farmers sell their wares to traders from the south, officials said Friday, predicting 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 in the state of Niger more than 180 miles west of Abuja, the 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 colored waters. Waist-deep in water, residents tried to salvage what they could, or rescue others.

“We lost many lives, and the properties, our farm produce. Those that have their storage have lost it,” Kazeem Muhammed, a Mokwa resident, said.