76 people have died as their boat capsized while they tried to flee dangerously high floodwaters that have inundated swathes of southern Nigeria.
The boat, carrying more than 80 people, capsized in the southeastern state of Anambra on Friday, as people desperately tried to escape floods that had risen as high as rooftops.
Recent flooding in the area had displaced up to 600,000 people according to the country’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Nigeria’s flood crisis has been disastrous this year, killing at least 300 people and affecting more than half a million people, NEMA said last month. NEMA warned of more catastrophic flooding for states located along the courses of rivers Niger and Benue, explaining that three of Nigeria’s overfilled reservoirs were expected to overflow.
The Anambra tragedy follows the devastating aftermath of a flood that swept through swaths of neighboring north-central Kogi state a week ago, leaving buildings submerged under water that rose to levels not seen in a decade, according to officials of the Kogi Red Cross Society.
