Nigeria: How Deforestation Aided Mokwa Floods That Killed Over 200, Displaced 3,000 Others

To rid the area of lurking criminal gangs, locals cleared vast stretches of tree cover, unaware of the environmental cost.

Faridah Ishaq is the sole survivor of the Mokwa flood in her family.

Leaning against a wall at an open refugee camp in c area of Mokwa in Niger State, the 36-year-old mother of six recounted how the flash floods took everything from her.

Mrs Ishaq lived in the same house with her co-wife and their husband, but none of them survived. Her six children, husband, co-wife, and four stepchildren are now memories.

“We had no route for an escape,” she muttered. “The whole place was filled with floodwaters, and I went back inside with my children, confused.”

Her children were swept away in a flash as the water coursed through the densely populated Tiffin Maza and Anguwar Hausawa neighbourhoods on 29 May. Mrs Ishaq was mysteriously saved by clogged trees that assuaged the violent flow of the water around Raba village. She was in the hospital for two days after her rescue.

Like Mrs Ishaq, many others in the town lost family members.

Unprecedented floods

Flooding occurs yearly in Nigeria during the rainy season between April and October. In 2024, floods caused by the failure of the Alau Dam in Maiduguri killed at least 30 people and displaced about 4,000 others. Two years earlier, flooding in 33 out of 36 states of the federation, including Abuja, killed about 600 people.

However, many residents told PREMIUM TIMES that the tragedy that hit Mokwa on 29 May was unprecedented in the town’s history.

“We experienced flooding around 2012, 2018 and 2020,” said 34-year-old Yunusa Alhaji. “But we had never witnessed this kind of destruction. Even though havoc happened in villages around, it was not up to what we experienced this year.”

The Mokwa flood, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), killed 206 people, displaced 3,534 others and destroyed over 400 homes.

More than N3 billion and other relief materials were donated within two weeks to help the disaster victims, but the humanitarian crisis remains.

Fighting fear with axes

One factor that contributed to the massive flooding in Mokwa is deforestation.

Cashew farms stretch across Ndayako, Abattoir, and the Ranch near Kpege, all in Mokwa. However, according to residents, the farms’ quietude and density made them hideouts for criminal gangs, from which they target motorcyclists.

“Corpses of unknown people suspected to be motorcyclists are always found in that forest,” Mohammed Abdullahi, a chief social welfare officer at Mokwa Local Government, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Data about the criminal activities in the forest is sketchy, but locals and community leaders said killings and motorcycle thefts constantly happen.

Mr Abdullahi estimated 54 persons had been killed. Between November 2021 and January 2022, at least nine bodies were discovered in the forest.

Around February and March, the community decided to clear the forest after the body of a pregnant woman was found there.

“They used to target commercial motorcyclists, but when we saw the body of the pregnant woman, we knew the situation was getting worse,” Mr Abdullahi, the social welfare officer who is also a community leader in Kpege, said.

An estimated 2,000 cashew trees were axed down.

After the deforestation, many residents further cleared the land and burnt tree stumps to use the fertile land for farming. Idris Ahmad, another resident of Mokwa, said the farmers “lost everything” to the flood.

According to NEMA, the floodwater submerged 180 hectares of farmland.

Data from Global Forest Watch, a forest-tracking platform, indicates that deforestation in Mokwa is accelerating. Sixty-seven deforestation alerts were recorded in the same period residents said the trees were felled.

PREMIUM TIMES combined field photographs with satellite imagery to conduct an analysis that revealed the extent of deforestation in the area.

Our analysis showed that the distance between the deforested area and the floodgate [along a railway line] is less than a kilometre.

Opening the floodgates

While the flooding was attributed to a downpour and poor drainage systems, our reporter understands that clearing tree cover in recent months stripped the area of its natural flood barriers, allowing floodwater to sweep through the town.

“The waters came from Yaagbagba village through a river in Zugurma,” Ndalile Ibrahim, a 50-year-old resident whose family was affected by the floods, said.

Like many other residents who spoke with this newspaper, Mr Ibrahim said the rain was not that heavy that day.

“But we realised that the floodwater had accumulated at Yaagbagba, then flowed down to this area and broke the bridge around Abattoir,” he said. “The flood flowed to the rail-line, broke the dyke and forced its way into the area where it caused a lot of damage.”

Mr Ibrahim acknowledged that it was not the first time water had passed through the area, although he could not point to the cause of the flooding. Many residents and victims are seeking answers to what led to the flooding.

“Water always passes through the drainage that links the affected area to the other side of the town,” he said. “But that catastrophic flood was mysterious.”

However, experts have argued that trees serve as natural buffers, absorbing rainwater, slowing runoff and anchoring the soil.

A Mokwa-based geologist and environmentalist, Kasim Audu, said the flooding resulted from poor environmental judgment.

“Cutting of trees across every part of Mokwa is a major factor worsening the flood situation in the entire town,” Mr Audu said, noting that the recent flooding “was a warning.”

He warned that failure to “treat environmental protection as a local priority” will again lead to the same crisis.

Many residents like Ms Ishaq now live with the consequences of the deforestation recently carried out.

Still mourning his wife and 43-day-old daughter, Adamu Yusuf was clad in a black dress with a stripe of white. The 45-year-old man told PREMIUM TIMES he had just married his wife about 10 months ago.

Mr Yusuf survived the flood because he could swim, but he could not save his family members that day.

“I lost seven other family members,” he said.

Some families are still searching for their loved ones. The state government estimated that more than 700 people are still missing.

A town rebuilds, but with what?

In Kpege, where Ms Ishaq and many survivors of the flooding now live in a makeshift shelter, recovery is slow and uncertain. Aid camps are overcrowded. The funds announced by governments have yet to reach many victims. Farming families who survived now have neither crops nor capital.

And as the rains return, so does the fear.

“I am alive, but I don’t know for how long,” said Ms Ishaq, her eyes scanning the sky for signs of another storm.

“I am not thinking of marrying again,” she said. “How long will it take me to have that number of children again?”

Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago said the state government would resettle the victims of the floods.

During his visit to the town, Mr Bago said the government would provide land and necessary services for resettlement. He directed the Ministry for Land and Survey to issue a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) to the federal government to facilitate the immediate construction of resettlement homes for the victims.

The governor then announced the award of N7 billion contracts for the project and the repair of the Rabba bridge linking Mokwa.

While the plans for rebuilding continue, concerned community leaders like Mr Abduallahi, the social welfare officer, have called for tree-planting programmes.

“Since donors have offered help, some resources should be channelled to tree planting,” he said.

By Premium Times.