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World / Africa

Nigeria flash floods kill 23: UN

Published: 30 Jul 2025 - 02:00 am | Last Updated: 29 Jul 2025 - 08:37 pm

AFP

Lagos: Flash floods triggered by heavy seasonal rains in Nigeria's Adamawa state have killed at least 23 people and left thousands homeless, the UN humanitarian agency said Tuesday.

Dozens of others were injured as several neighbourhoods in Yola, capital of the northeastern state, were submerged on Sunday, the United Nations humanitarian affairs agency OCHA said.

Authorities are conducting search and rescue operations and have opened shelters for those displaced.

They are "warning of further rainfall and urging residents in flood-prone areas to move to higher ground," the agency said.

Heavy rains sweep Nigeria between June and November, often triggering dangerous floods where poor infrastructure and inadequate drainage often worsens the impact across Africa's most populous country.

More than 200 people have been killed in floods in Nigeria since he start of the rainy season in May, most of them in the north-central Niger state.

In 2024, more than 300 people were killed and over a million displaced in at least 34 out of Nigeria's 36 states, making it one of the country's worst flood seasons in decades, according to OCHA.

Nigerian meteorologists have warned of possible floods across most Nigerian states this rainy season. Scientists have warned that climate change is already fuelling more extreme weather patterns.