Seventy-six 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). 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. At least six people, including a toddler, were reported to have died in Kogi’s worst-hit Ibaji district, which the state Governor Yahaya Bello said was “100% underwater.” Kogi is located around 200 kilometers from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Kogi’s capital, Lokoja, is the meeting point for West Africa’s largest rivers, the Niger and Benue. “As the two major rivers meet in Lokoja, they overwhelmed the banks of the Lower Niger river, hence the inundation,” environmentalist Simi Adeodun told CNN.
SOURCE: CNN