Rescuers Fan Out After Nigeria Flooding Kills More than 150

Flooding, usually caused by heavy rains and poor infrastructure, wreaks havoc every year, killing hundreds of people in Nigeria. OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP
Flooding, usually caused by heavy rains and poor infrastructure, wreaks havoc every year, killing hundreds of people in Nigeria. OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP
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Rescuers Fan Out After Nigeria Flooding Kills More than 150

Flooding, usually caused by heavy rains and poor infrastructure, wreaks havoc every year, killing hundreds of people in Nigeria. OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP
Flooding, usually caused by heavy rains and poor infrastructure, wreaks havoc every year, killing hundreds of people in Nigeria. OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP

Search teams fanned out Saturday from the epicenter of deadly flash flooding in Nigeria, the Red Cross said, as the death toll from heavy rains in the north-central market town of Mokwa topped 150.
The sharp rise in the toll came as bodies were recovered nearly 10 kilometers (six miles) from the town, where more than 250 buildings were levelled and two bridges were swept away, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, told AFP.

Husseini said the toll could rise further, with bodies being swept down the powerful Niger River.

Gideon Adamu, head of the Red Cross in Niger state, told AFP that search teams were heading toward Jebba, on the opposite side of the waterway's swampy banks.

Mokwa was hit by torrential rains Wednesday night into Thursday, with the flooding displacing more than 3,000 people, Husseini said. There were 121 injured in hospital, Adamu said, and more than 100 people were missing.

Nigeria's rainy season, which usually lasts six months, is just getting started for the year.

Heavy rains and poor infrastructure lead to flooding that wreaks havoc every year, killing hundreds of people across the west African country.

Scientists have also warned that climate change is fueling more extreme weather patterns.

'We can't give up'
Roads were still inundated in Mokwa on Friday, an AFP journalist saw, with Husseini saying his team would need excavators to reach bodies feared buried under the rubble.

Residents in the town, around 350 kilometers by road from the capital Abuja, were still searching for relatives. In some cases, families were missing a dozen people.

e can't give up the search as long as there are families crying out," said Adamu, the Red Cross chief.

"If there were some bodies that were carried away by the flooding, we'll find them in the farmland on the Jebba side."

According to a tally provided by Husseini, 151 people were killed, 3,018 were displaced, 265 houses were destroyed and two bridges were washed away in the busy market town.

Mohammed Tanko, 29, a civil servant, pointed to a house he grew up in, telling reporters Friday: "We lost at least 15 from this house. The property (is) gone. We lost everything."

Floods in Nigeria are exacerbated by inadequate drainage, the construction of homes on waterways and the dumping of waste in drains and water channels.

"This tragic incident serves as a timely reminder of the dangers associated with building on waterways and the critical importance of keeping drainage channels and river paths clear," the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said in a statement.

Complicating the search for missing persons was the presence of a large group of travelers staying overnight in a Mokwa mosque when the rains hit, Adamu said. The building collapsed and it was still unknown where the people had been travelling from.

President Bola Tinubu said the disaster response was being aided by security forces.

- Warning sounded -

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency had warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria's 36 states, including Niger state, between Wednesday and Friday.

In 2024, floods killed 321 people across 34 of Nigeria's 36 states, according to NEMA.

Describing how she escaped the raging waters in Mokwa, Sabuwar Bala, a 50-year-old yam vendor, told reporters: "I was only wearing my underwear, someone loaned me all I'm wearing now. I couldn't even save my flip-flops."

"I can't locate where my home stood because of the destruction," she said.



Russia Focusing Airstrikes on Ukraine Draft Offices to Derail Recruitment, Kyiv Says

A view shows ruins of buildings in the abandoned town of Marinka (Maryinka), which was destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows ruins of buildings in the abandoned town of Marinka (Maryinka), which was destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
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Russia Focusing Airstrikes on Ukraine Draft Offices to Derail Recruitment, Kyiv Says

A view shows ruins of buildings in the abandoned town of Marinka (Maryinka), which was destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows ruins of buildings in the abandoned town of Marinka (Maryinka), which was destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)

Russia killed two people in an airstrike on the central Ukrainian city of Poltava on Thursday and damaged a military draft office there in what Kyiv said was a concerted campaign to disrupt recruitment for its war effort.

The strike on Poltava, which also injured 47 people and caused a fire at the city's main draft office, followed a drone attack on Monday near a recruitment center in Kryvyi Rih. Both cities are regional capitals.

"We understand that their (Russian) goal is to disrupt the mobilisation process," Vitaliy Sarantsev, a spokesperson for Ukraine's ground forces, told Ukraine's public broadcaster, Reuters reported.

"But I want to say that...it is too early (for Russia) to uncork the champagne because the process is impossible to stop."

Ukraine has struggled to fend off a bigger and better-equipped Russian army, and its call-up process has been marred by reports of draft-office corruption, poor training and weak battlefield command.

Well into the fourth year of its full-scale invasion, Russia has gained ground in eastern Ukraine and repeatedly hit cities far behind the front lines with drones and missiles, while also waging a sabotage campaign there, Kyiv's domestic security agency says.

In a statement to Reuters last month, the Security Service of Ukraine said it had arrested more than 700 people since 2024 for alleged crimes that included arson attacks on troop vehicles and bombings at draft offices.

A Ukrainian security official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Russia was aiming to derail Kyiv's military call-up effort also by spreading disinformation and hacking recruitment office computers.

"The disruption of mobilisation is closely linked to the spread of panic and intimidation of the population," the source said, adding that bombings were part of the general strategy.

INTENSIFYING STRIKES

Russian forces have also stepped up strikes on military training grounds in recent weeks, prompting Kyiv's top general to order a strengthening of security measures at bases.

A missile attack on southeastern Ukraine this week killed a brigade commander. Ukrainian forces have also staged longer-range attacks on Russian bases in occupied territory as well as deep inside Russia.

Thursday's strike on Poltava came after the US said it had paused some weapons shipments to Ukraine, which drew warnings in Kyiv that the move would harm Ukraine's defence against intensifying Russian air strikes and battlefield gains.

Separately on Thursday, two people were killed in a ballistic missile strike on port infrastructure in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, said regional governor Oleh Kiper.

Dozens of people have been killed in recent drone and missile salvoes at Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.