In a few hours, the waters reached the roof level

The number of deaths after devastating floods in a market in the Northern State-central market in Nigeria, Niger, has increased to at least 151 on Saturday, said the local emergency service, in the midst of efforts to find more victims. The torrents of precipitation warned early Thursday sparked the flood on Mokwa, nearly 240 miles west of Abuja and a large shopping and transport center where Northern Nigerian farmers sell beans, onions and other foods to southern merchants. A spokesperson for the Emergency Service of the State of Niger, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, confirmed the number of deaths updated to the AP SATURDAY.

In addition to the number of deaths, 11 people were injured and more than 3,000 people were moved, Husseini added. At least 500 households in three communities were affected by the sudden and intense floods that quickly built themselves in about five hours, leaving the roofs barely visible and surviving residents to the water in the water, trying to save what they could and save others. Husseini added that two roads had been swept away and that two bridges collapsed.

Friday evening, in a statement, President Bola Tinubu expressed his condolences and said that he had ordered the activation of an emergency intervention to support the victims and “accelerate” the recovery. He said security agencies have also been invited to help emergency operations, which are underway with regard to concerns that more organs could be recovered in remote areas. “Rescue supports and temporary shelter assistance are deployed without delay,” said the president, promising “that no Nigerian affected will be left behind or unknown”.

The floods are common during the Nigeria rainy season. The communities of northern Nigeria experienced periods of prolonged drought aggravated by climate change, as well as excessive precipitation which lead to serious floods during the brief rainy season. This flood, however, was particularly deadly in Mokwa, an agricultural region near the banks of the Niger river. Aliki Musa, head of the Mokwa community, said the villagers were not used to such floods. The president of the Mokwa local government area, Jibril Muregi, told a local website that the construction of flood control was expected for a long time.

(More Nigeria stories.)