7 killed by flood in Nigeria's Katsina State

At least seven people have been killed in a recent flood that ravaged northern Nigeria's Katsina State, Director of the state-run Rehabilitation and Emergency Relief Agency (RERA) Hassan Rawayau said Thursday. Fifteen out of 34 local government areas of the state were affected by the high level of flooding, the government official told reporters in Katsina, the state capital. "Thousands of houses were damaged by the flood in all the affected local governments and some victims, especially those in Randawa village of Mani local government area, were resettled," he said, noting more than 146 farmlands were also destroyed by the flood. According to him, the Kusada local government area of the state was most hit by the flood. He said the floods had not seriously affected agricultural activities, adding that the government agency had started distributing relief materials from the National Emergency Relief Agency (NEMA) to victims. At least 148 people have so far died as a result of flooding in 21 states in the West African country, the most populous in the continent, according to the Nigerian Red Cross Society.