Two children have died in northwestern Nigeria after the building they were staying in collapsed, among dozens of children who have died in weeks of severe flooding, the country’s disaster agency said.
According to the National Emergency Management Agency (Nema), the children died in Katsina, one of seven states in the northwest that have been particularly hard hit by flooding.
A third child was injured after the building collapsed, Nema said.
On Thursday, the agency reported that at least 179 people across Nigeria have died as a result of the floods, while tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes.
In a statement, the office of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said he “received with great sadness the news of the devastation caused by the floods in communities and farmlands across the country.”
The president stressed the need to address “environmental challenges” and “create a climate-resilient and adaptive society,” he added in the statement.
About 107,000 hectares of farmland have been washed away, a worrying figure as Nigerians are already struggling with soaring food costs.
The country is facing the worst economic crisis in a generation due to problems such as double-digit inflation and foreign currency shortages.
Nema and the UN refugee agency noted that several people displaced by the floods had already fled their homes in the northwest due to repeated attacks by militants.
The UN refugee agency said the floods were a “devastating” event that caused “death and destruction”.
In 2022, Nigeria was hit by the worst floods in more than a decade, killing more than 600 people and displacing around 1.3 million.
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