Flooding in Nigeria that submerged a town in a crucial agricultural region has displaced thousands of people, damaged farmland and claimed nearly 200 lives, the nation’s emergency agency said Tuesday. Meteorologists predict that the flooding will spread in coming months, heightening food insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation.
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More than 3,000 people have been affected by flooding that began late May in Mokwa, Niger state, according to the National Emergency Management Agency. Nearly 2,000 people have been displaced, with 98 people missing, the agency’s spokesperson, Manzo Ezekiel, said.
The flooding has also destroyed key roads and bridges, disrupting economic activity in Mokwa, a town that plays a “strategic role in regional commerce and transportation,” according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. Mokwa links traders from southern Nigeria with food producers in the north.
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The floods could exacerbate ongoing food shortages caused by bandit attacks in the country’s north, which functions as its bread basket. Flooding last year destroyed thousands of acres of farmland and heightened food insecurity. At least 33 million people are projected to be food insecure in Nigeria this year, according to the United Nations.
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency has predicted that flooding could affect 30 of 36 Nigerian states this year. The agency predicted thunderstorms and rains across several northern food producing states including Taraba, Kaduna and Gombe this week.
