{"id":64510,"date":"2025-04-21T06:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T06:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=64510"},"modified":"2025-04-21T06:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T06:05:06","slug":"flood-sweeps-niger-rice-belt-claims-lives-and-livelihoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/04\/21\/flood-sweeps-niger-rice-belt-claims-lives-and-livelihoods\/","title":{"rendered":"Flood Sweeps Niger Rice Belt, Claims Lives and Livelihoods"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Ade Iyamoye\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A devastating flood has killed three people and wiped out over 10,000 hectares of rice farms in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State, leaving farmers in anguish and entire communities in disarray.<\/p>\n<p>The flood, reportedly triggered by the release of water from the Jebba hydroelectric power dam, tore through dry-season farmlands, drowning crops that were ripe for harvest and displacing hundreds of farmers who had migrated from across Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the farms were ready for harvest. Some had even started when the flood struck. We don\u2019t understand why water was released without warning,\u201d lamented Abdulrahman Abdulkadir Wuya-Kede, a youth leader and affected farmer.<\/p>\n<p>For many, the damage is total. \u201cLives, capital and hard-earned investments have been lost\u2014most of which can never be recovered,\u201d said Abubakar Ndako, one of the victims. \u201cFarmers came from Kebbi, Sokoto, Kano, and even Maiduguri. Now they are left hopeless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Local communities had turned to irrigation farming after similar losses during the rainy season, but this second blow has plunged many into despair.<\/p>\n<p>Confirming the tragedy, Dr Ibrahim Audu Hussaini of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) said the three fatalities occurred when a canoe capsized while crossing a swollen river.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that the agency is still assessing the full scale of the destruction.<\/p>\n<p>The affected farmers and community leaders are calling for immediate government intervention, demanding accountability and improved communication before future dam releases to prevent further disasters.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ade Iyamoye\u00a0 A devastating flood has killed three people and wiped out over 10,000 hectares of rice farms in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State, leaving farmers in anguish and entire communities in disarray. The flood, reportedly triggered by the release of water from the Jebba hydroelectric power dam, tore through dry-season farmlands, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":64511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64512,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64510\/revisions\/64512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}