Nigeria: Over 100 people missing after boat capsizes

A search operation has rescued 150 people and recovered 16 bodies. Officials said the vessel was filled to roughly three times its capacity.

Transcript

00:00This is how some residents of flood-hit north-eastern Nigeria are getting from A to B.

00:06The area has been under water since heavy rains led to a dam wall bursting in neighbouring Cameroon last week,

00:13and now the threat of further flooding looms.

00:18The Benue River flows downstream from Cameroon to Nigeria, and there are several dams along it.

00:24Authorities in Cameroon had warned that they were releasing water from one of them,

00:29the Lagdo Dam off Lake Lagdo, sparking fears across the border with Nigeria,

00:34claiming that would leave 11 states at risk of flooding.

00:40Hundreds of thousands of people have already been displaced in Nigeria because of the rising waters, according to the UN,

00:46including a part of the country that has already seen millions forced to flee due to an Islamist insurgency.

00:55It's an absolute tragedy for these local people who had their homes wiped out due to the flooding

01:02and were already affected by conflict in the region, Boko Haram-related conflict.

01:08These are farmers that would rather be on their farms now being hit by floods.

01:14So what we saw today was continued challenges for people to live away from their homes.

01:23Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is prone to flooding,

01:27and experts say climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent.

01:32They claim more needs to be done to prepare,

01:34highlighting the need to modernise ageing infrastructure and improve crisis planning,

01:39providing some hope for those who risk losing everything when the waters start to rise.