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Flooding kills 49 in northern Nigeria
KANO, Nigeria, July 17, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Flooding caused by torrential
rains on Nigeria’s border with Niger has left 49 people dead and another 20
missing, the emergency services said on Tuesday.
Five villages in Jibia district were affected after a river burst its banks
after hours of heavy rains overnight Sunday, Aminu Waziri, the head of the
Katsina state emergency management agency, told AFP.
“We have recovered 49 dead bodies from the five villages and we are still
searching for 20 others,” he added.
Twenty-four of the victims were washed away by to Mada Rumfa and Kantumi
villages in neighbouring Niger.
“Some of the victims were pulled from the rubble of their collapsed
homes,” said Waziri.
More than 2,000 people displaced by the flooding were sheltering in
primary schools in Jibia, while 27 injured had been taken to hospital.
“The state government has released relief materials for the affected
persons and we have also asked for intervention from the national emergency
management agency.”
Flooding is common in many parts of Nigeria during the rainy season which
runs from May to September.
On Tuesday, local media quoted the meteorological agency as warning of
flooding in many parts of the country this year because of “shift in rain
pattern”, with some areas recording higher-than-usual rainfall.
In 2012, Nigeria suffered disastrous floods across 30 of its 36 states, in
which hundreds of people died and about two million were left homeless.
BSS/AFP/RY/1703 hrs