The putrid smell of death hangs heavy in Mokwa town as survivors wade through knee-deep mud, searching for loved ones swept away by Nigeria’s latest flood disaster. The official death toll has surpassed 200, with 500 still missing, but these numbers can’t capture the human devastation.
Adamu Yusuf, 36, stands blankly on the blue tiles that once anchored his bedroom. “I watched helplessly as water washed away my wife and newborn,” he tells the BBC, his voice hollow. They had just returned from her parents’ house after childbirth.
Nearby, 19-year-old Isa Muhammed sobs for his teacher, whose entire family disappeared when their home became a watery grave.
This isn’t just another seasonal flood. Survivors insist the deluge came mysteriously after rains had stopped, with 7-foot waves appearing suddenly at dawn. “The rain couldn’t have caused this,” insists Ramat Sulaiman, 65, who watched 100 Quranic school children drown as their building collapsed. Her son Saliu lost $1,500 in farm profits, his entire livelihood, to the raging waters.
The cruel irony? Nigeria saw this coming. The government’s own May flood warnings identified Niger State as high-risk, part of a pattern that killed 600 in 2022. Yet inadequate infrastructure and climate change have literally created a perfect storm. Meteorologists predict 200 rainy days this year, but no one prepared for this biblical-scale disaster.
As survivors dig corpses from the mud with bare hands, the bigger question looms: How many more must die before Nigeria treats flooding as the national emergency it truly is? For Adamu, clutching the borrowed shirt on his back, his sole remaining possession, the answer comes too late.
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