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 on Friday, predicting the death toll would grow.
The Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency did not immediately say how much rain fell after midnight Thursday in Mokwa in the state of Niger, more than 300-km 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.