By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
ABUJA (Worthy News) – More than 100 people have died and several others remained missing as predawn rain unleashed flooding in the central Nigerian state of Niger, authorities said Friday.
Most were killed in Mokwa as floods submerged this market town after the rains began Wednesday night and continued into Thursday morning, according to witnesses.
Ibrahim Audu Hussein, a spokesperson for the state emergency management agency, said in published remarks that rescue efforts were still underway.
“We have so far recovered 115 bodies, and more are expected to be recovered because the flood came from far distance and washed people into the River Niger. Downstream, bodies are still being recovered,” Husseini told the AFP news agency. “So, the toll keeps rising.”
More than 3,000 houses were submerged, he added.
Mokwa, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, is a commercial hub in Niger state, with many traders and heavy-duty vehicles often carrying goods to other regions.
MORE HEAVY STORMS
In Nigeria, the rainy season usually runs from April to October, and warnings of more difficult weather have been issued.
On Wednesday, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency forecasted heavy storms for Abuja and 14 of the country’s 36 states, including Niger.
That weather pattern was also expected to add to the suffering faced by Christian farmer and evangelist Paul Jongas in Abuja. “Please pray for me and my family. All my family members recently woke up with a malaria fever attack due to a lack of electricity, which attracted many mosquitoes,” he told Worthy News.
Communities in northern Nigeria have been experiencing prolonged dry spells and excessive rainfall, which has led to severe flooding during the brief wet season.
It was unclear how the flooding and more rain in Niger, Nigeria’s largest state by landmass, would impact its three major dams – Kainji, Jebba, and Shiroro – which contribute to the country’s electricity grid. A fourth dam is under construction.
Officials said the state has been prone to flooding in recent times.
DAM DESTROYED
In April, water reportedly released from one of the dams destroyed more than 5,000 farms in 30 communities, including in Mokwa. Local news reports suggested it was the sixth flood in the state this year.
In 2022, floods in Nigeria killed more than 600 people, displaced about 1.4 million, and destroyed 440,000 hectares of farmland, according to authorities.
Some experts blame the flooding and related death toll on global warming linked to “climate change,” but others suggest that intense building and poor infrastructure are contributing factors.
The flooding added to misery in a nation where, over the last five weeks, over 300 Nigerians, including army personnel and civilians, were killed in northeastern Nigeria by Boko Haram, designated as an Islamic terror group by authorities.
Many Christians are believed to be among the victims.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Hungary’s prime minister told U.S. President Donald J. Trump on Friday that it would take a miracle for Ukraine to win the war against Russia. Viktor Orbán made the remarks at the White House, where Trump asked him during a joint news conference about the prospects for Kyiv’s victory.
Hungarian prosecutors have requested a two-year suspended prison sentence for Gábor Iványi, a 76-year-old Methodist pastor, once a close confidant of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and several opposition politicians, in a case widely viewed as politically charged.
In a decision that could reshape federal identification standards, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to enforce its policy requiring Americans to list their biological sex–male or female–on passports, rather than self-identified gender.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R–S.D.) told Republican senators Thursday to prepare for a critical Friday vote aimed at ending the nation’s longest-ever government shutdown — now in its sixth week — as lawmakers scramble to reach a deal amid growing economic strain and partisan stalemate.
The Senate on Thursday narrowly rejected a Democratic resolution that would have required President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval before taking military action against Venezuela, marking the second failed attempt in as many months to rein in the administration’s campaign targeting Venezuelan drug-trafficking vessels.
Kazakhstan has officially joined the Abraham Accords, becoming the first country to do so during U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, the White House confirmed Thursday evening.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday carried out a sweeping wave of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and its terror infrastructure across southern Lebanon, marking one of the largest military operations since the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.