Authorities put the death toll from the rains in Nigeria at 153, but a local leader speaks of 203

Lagos, June 2 (EFE).- Authorities lowered the number of people who died in western Nigeria from 158 to 153 on Monday due to the floods caused last Thursday by the intense rains, although a local community leader put the death toll at 203. The catastrophe occurred in the area of Kpege village, in the Mokwa local government area, located in Niger State. "The death toll remains at 153, the (figure of) 158 was an error," Ibrahim Hussein, spokesman for Niger's National Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), told EFE by phone, who had provided the figure of 158 deaths this weekend.

However, a community leader from Mokwa, Lawal Abubakar, put the death toll at 203.

"We recovered more bodies between Saturday and Sunday. So far, we have recovered 203," Abubakar, who has participated in the body recovery efforts, told EFE by phone.

"Some bodies were recovered in farmland, while others were recovered from the rubble of collapsed structures," Abubakar noted, adding that there could still be more bodies undiscovered, and that young people from the area are still working on the search efforts.

But the NSEMA spokesperson claimed that the figure provided by the community leader was exaggerated.

"We do not agree with that figure (...). We still have less than 200. Right now I am in Mokwa. We have no record of 203 corpses," he explained to EFE.

In statements published this Saturday by local media, the Director General of NSEMA, Abdullahi Baba-Arah, revealed that 503 households were affected, while 265 houses were swept away by the water. Furthermore, "3,018 people were displaced" by the disaster, Baba-Arah specified.

In a statement released this weekend, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said he received with "deep concern the alarming reports of the severe floods" that caused "the tragic loss of life and the displacement of families".

"I express my deepest condolences to the affected families and the good people of Niger State during these difficult times," Tinubu emphasized.

"We will ensure that no Nigerian affected by this disaster is left abandoned or missing," the president promised.

Last year, until September, at least 269 people died due to floods in different parts of the country, while more than 640,000 people were displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, experiences annual floods caused by torrential rains and overflowing rivers, exacerbated by the poor state of infrastructure.

The country suffered its worst floods in the last decade in 2022, when 600 people died. EFE