Adamu Yusuf’s life has been completely upended since he lost nine members of his family to the devastating floods that recently struck Tiffin Maza, one of the two worst-hit communities in Mokwa, his hometown in north-central Nigeria.
Anguwan Hausawa was the other community heavily affected by the disaster.
The 36-year-old father-of-one told BBC that his wife and their newborn baby were among those swept away when the floods struck early Thursday morning in Niger State.
Mr. Adamu recalled that his wife woke him up when the floodwaters arrived, and he quickly gathered his family together, urging them to hold tightly to one another.
“As we stepped outside, we saw water everywhere in our living room and the compound. They panicked and we got disconnected,” he told BBC.
He said his wife had only returned to Mokwa a day before the floods, having stayed at her parents’ house for a few weeks after giving birth.
“I watched helplessly as water washed away my family. I survived because I could swim. It was God that saved me,” Mr Adamu said.
On Saturday, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reported that the death toll had climbed to 151. However, by Sunday, local officials told the BBC that it had risen to over 200.
Standing on the blue-tiled floor that was once the only clue of his bedroom, Mr. Adamu surveyed the vast emptiness that had replaced his community, lamenting that he had lost everything to the flood.
“But the most painful is that of my family,” he said, identifying the cloth he wore as his most valuable possession.
The cloth was given to him by a friend.
He said one relative had already been found dead, and he had little hope that the others would be found alive.
Nineteen-year-old Isa Muhammed, who recently graduated from high school, has been overwhelmed with grief since learning that his beloved teacher’s house was swept away by the floods, with the teacher and eight members of his family still inside.
“Two have been found dead; one of them was his baby. My teacher, his second child, his sister and four other relatives are still missing. A building fell on his wife who wasn’t inside the house with them, and she died instantly,” Muhammed said.
Muhammed’s uncle, who had taken care of him since his father’s death in 2023, also lost his life in the disaster.
With the waters now receded, residents gathered on Saturday to console the victims and join in search and recovery efforts.
Some residents told the BBC that in some parts of the community, the water rose to at least 7ft (2.1m).
A strong, foul smell lingers around Tiffin Maza, which locals believe is evidence that there are still bodies trapped beneath the thick mud deposited by the floods.
They are determined to find and give the dead a proper burial, as they have done for others since Thursday.
Sixty-five-year-old Ramat Sulaiman, whose home was completely destroyed, leaving her family homeless, said that 100 children who used to sleep at a Quranic school two blocks from her house “all got washed away.”
“It was a painful sight for me. The children cried for help, but no one could do anything. As their cries got louder, their building sunk and flowed away,” she said.
Authorities have not confirmed whether a dam failure contributed to the severity of the recent floods, as has been widely speculated.
Residents told BBC News that they believe the floodwaters were not solely caused by the heavy rains they experienced.
“The rain couldn’t have caused the floods because it had subsided and there was no water anywhere. I was outside and suddenly I saw water gushing down in high speed and scattering everything on its path,” Mr Muhammed said.
Mokwa Deputy Local Chairman, Musa Alhaji Aliyu Kimboku, also dismissed the claim that the flood was caused by rain.
SaharaReporters reported on Saturday that some victims of the disaster claimed that the devastating incident was not caused by rainfall but a suspected release of water from the Kainji Dam.
Residents who spoke to SaharaReporters on Friday in Mokwa said the flood, which struck in the early hours of May 29, 2025, came without any heavy rainfall the night before, leading many to believe it was not a natural disaster.
Several locals also noted that in the days leading up to the flood, parts of New Bussa town in Borgu LGA of Niger State experienced partial flooding, and some farmers in Mokwa observed rising water levels across their farmlands but did not expect the devastating scale that followed.
One of the victims, AbdulGafar, who lost everything he had worked for in the flood, insisted that the water’s arrival was sudden and unnatural.
“I believe the flood is not as a result of rainfall. If it was rain it would have affected us in the middle of the night or the flood could have come at midnight. It is terrible that we are witnessing this thing in our lives,” he said.
He further explained that, while the community had experienced severe erosion in the past, this disaster was unlike anything they had ever faced before.
“We’ve not had it this bad. We’ve been experiencing erosion, a serious one of that,” he said.
“But this is the worst we’ve ever experienced. And I can categorically say that this is not rain but water, which we can actually link to the Kainji Dam because it was a heavy flood that came.”
Another victim, Salihu Suleiman, who also lost all his properties and investments, also emphasised that no heavy rainfall preceded the flood.
Suleiman said, “This flood is not from rainwater because there was not that heavy downpour a day before the devastating incident.
“Around 6am, I and my wife woke up to pray subh prayer (morning prayer) to prayed and went back to sleep and 4 to 5 minutes later my mom came knocking at the door she was shouting come out tell your wife to come out and I rushed out she was like water is coming I should call my wife and I called her we ran we ran out that would not pick anything I came out with only my singlet and boxers alone without picking anything not even my phone.”
