Three die, 10 missing in Niger floods

Three persons died while about 10 others were missing when flood ravaged Suleja, Niger State on Sunday. Over 100 houses were badly affected while property including vehicles worth millions of naira were destroyed by the flood.

Eyewitnesses told the News Agency of Nigeria that eight members of a household were suspected to have died in the flood which affected Suleja and Tafa Local Government areas of Niger State.

The head of the household was said to have survived but his two wives and six children were not lucky.

The NAN reported that many families were affected with household effects floating on the water.

Many people struggled to scoop water out of their houses.

The District Police Officer in-charge of Division ‘A’ Police station in Suleja, Mr. Mohammed Mohammed, could not confirm the casualty figure but said his men had visited the flood scenes.

“The flood affected many people who built their houses along the river bank; many houses have been destroyed with unconfirmed number of deaths recorded

Police are providing security around the scene so that hoodlums will not cart away victims’ property especially those lying outside,” he said.

At the Suleja General Hospital, a 17 year-old boy, Musliu Mohammed, rescued from the flood and brought into the hospital by sympathisers, was placed on admission.

A Search and Rescue Officer of NEMA, Egrigba Micheal,, who spoke to journalists, said that the agency rescued a victim and rushed him to the Suleja General Hospital.

He said, “We got a call from our zonal coordinator, Mohammed Idris that there was a flood in Suleja. So we quickly moved to Suleja. We have seen a lot of devastation the rain has caused. Many of the houses were submerged while some were completely rooted out. Many properties worth millions of naira were also destroyed.

“There was one house that had eight people completely dead although we didn’t see their corpses.

“In a family of eight, only one person was brought out dead. But the other seven are still missing.

Newborn baby among latest migrant arrivals to Italy

The first of more than 3,500 would-be migrants picked up off the coast of Libya in recent days arrived Wednesday in Italy, as Rome pressures other countries into taking their share.

The early morning saw a coast guard vessel with 481 migrants aboard reach the southern Sicilian port of Pozzallo, while the Phoenix vessel of Maltese NGO Moas began disembarking 422 more further up the coast at Trapani.

One migrant was a newborn Cameroonian named Chris, whose mother gave birth to him on Tuesday aboard a rickety wooden boat.

Rescuers applauded as she made her way up a ladder to haul herself on to the Aquarius, a vessel chartered by SOS Mediterranee and MSF.

The little boy's father has still to attempt the hazardous trip to Europe from Libya.

MSF midwife Alice Gautreau tweeted how she cut the child's umbilical cord.

"Little Chris is doing fine, his mother too. But it would have been better for both if she had not had to give birth in the middle of the Mediterranean, surrounded by 100 men," Gautreau added.

Vessels from four other NGOs - Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), SOS Mediterranee, Save the Children and ProActiva Open Arms - were on their way to Italian ports with a cargo of some 2,700 more migrants, including many children, picked up on Tuesday, those organizations said.

Italy has been urging its EU partners to make a "concrete contribution" to dealing with the crisis both in terms of trying to limit departures from Libya and also taking in a portion of those who survive the perilous journey.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned last week that his country did not have "unlimited" capacity to keep taking people having already accepted around 85,000 of the 100,000 people who have arrived this year.

EU interior ministers last week pledged to back an urgent European Commission plan to help Italy by earmarking 35 million euros ($40 million) in aid.

The issue was high on the agenda of Wednesday talks in the northeastern city of Trieste between Gentiloni, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attending a Western Balkans summit.