(Bloomberg) -- At least 100 people died in floods in central and southern Nigeria as torrential rains caused the West African country's two main rivers to overflow, the emergency agency said.
“About 100 lost their lives in 10 states so far, and a national disaster has been declared in four states,” Sani Datti, the spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, said by phone on Monday from the central city of Lokoja.
The government is concerned that water levels have continued to rise on the Niger and Benue rivers, submerging many houses in the states of Kogi, Niger, Anambra and Delta, Datti said.
Alerts by the hydrological services agency indicated the flooding could reach the scale of the last major such event in 2012, which displaced 2.2 million people and resulted in 363 deaths.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tope Alake in Lagos at talake@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sophie Mongalvy at smongalvy@bloomberg.net, Dulue Mbachu, Michael Gunn
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