Death toll in Nigeria jumps past 200

Flash flooding in north-central Nigeria last week killed more than 200 people, the Niger state humanitarian commissioner said yesterday, while hundreds more remain missing and are feared dead.

The town of Mokwa was hit with the worst flash flood in living memory Thursday from overnight rains, with more than 250 homes destroyed and swathes of the town wiped out in a single morning.

The announcement comes after several days of the official toll standing at around 150, even as residents were sometimes missing more than a dozen members in a single family.

"We have more than 200… corpses," Ahmad Suleiman told Nigerian Channels Television.