Abuja, Aug 27 : At least 10 people were killed and 20,000 displaced when waters from a dam in Cameroon flooded some parts of the Adamawa state in Nigeria over the weekend.
State Emergency Management Agency official Shadrach Daniel Baruk said the flood was made more intense by heavy rainfall.
”Farmlands numbering thousands of hectares and cattle ranches were also inundated in the region which is mostly rural,” he said, adding that many persons were still missing.
Baruk said more than 40 villages were swept away by the flooding even as some houses were also destroyed.
He said that authorities in Cameroon had warned Nigerians living near Benue River to vacate the place because of the impending flooding but they refused.
Flooding is very common in Nigeria during rainy season and this year four persons were killed after a heavy downpour in Niger state. Another flood in central city of Jos left 68
people dead.
Nigeria has two seasons; dry and rainy.
Last July, torrential rain and flooding that hit Lagos led to more than 20 deaths, even as 2,000 persons were displaced.
Then, heavy downpour in the Island city of 15 million people triggered the overflow of canals with water pouring into residential areas and major roads.
Eleven of the dead were children who drowned in the ensuing flood as the victims could not distinguish between the roads and drainage channels.
