Floods in Nigeria kill at least 150

Flash flooding earlier this week in central Nigeria killed more than 150 people, a local disaster response spokesman told AFP yesterday, while displacing 3,000, levelling more than 250 homes and washing away two bridges.

The sharp jump from the previous death toll of 115 came as bodies were recovered nearly 10 kilometres away from the town of Mokwa, the epicentre of the floods, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, told AFP.

As Husseini warned that the toll could still rise -- with bodies being swept away down the powerful Niger River -- President Bola Tinubu said that search-and-rescue operations were underway, with the disaster response being aided by security forces.

Buildings collapsed and roads were inundated in the town, which is located more than 350 kilometres by road from the capital Abuja, an AFP journalist in Mokwa observed on Friday.