His life has been upended since he lost nine family members in Tiffin Maza, one of the two worst communities in his town to have been flooded in northern Nigeria.

The 36-year-old father said his wife and the newborn baby were washed away in the flood in the early hours of the Niger State University.

"When the flood hit, she was a person who woke me up, and I quickly gathered my family and told everyone to hold each other. When we walked outside, we saw water everywhere in the living room and the yard. They were panicked and we were disconnected."

His wife and baby just returned to Mokwa town a day ago after staying for a few weeks after giving birth.

Mr. Adamu said: "I watched helplessly as the water washed away my family. I survived because I could swim. It was God who saved me."

Local officials said the death toll on Sunday has risen to more than 200, a sharp increase from 110 on Friday. There are concerns that this number will still increase further.

The mood of the Tiffin Maza community on Saturday was a kind of sadness, despair and loss.

Sporadic clothing, soaked mattresses and crushed metal roof sheets are the last part of hundreds of homes now.

The structures still stand, with severe impacts of flooding, roofs washed away or parts of the building are destroyed.

Adamu stands on the blue tile floor, the only pointing to his bedroom, which surrounds the vast empty space that replaced his community.

"I lost everything from this flood. But the most painful thing is my family. The only thing I have value right now is the dress I wear, even the one given to me by my friends."

He said a relative was found dead and he "resigned, and no one will return to him."

Isa Muhammed, a 19-year-old high school graduate, has since heard that his beloved teacher’s house was washed away, and the teacher and eight family members have washed it inside.

"Two people were found dead; one of them was his child. My teacher, his second child, his sister and four other relatives were still missing. A building fell on his wife, he was not at home, and she died immediately."

Mr. Mohammed also lost his family and remembered his uncle who died in the disaster.

“Uncle Musa is a great friend of my late father. He has taken care of me since my father passed away in 2023. He taught me to value education and always told me to do the right thing.

"Whenever I think of him alone, tears always roll down my cheeks. I have been unable to fall asleep since the incident."

The water has now retreated, and residents gathered on Saturday to express their condolences to the victims and helped the search.

Some residents told BBC News that in certain areas of the community, flooding is at least 7 feet (2.1 million) higher.

There was a strong stinking around Tiffin Maza, which residents thought proved that there were bodies under the thick mud and the flood was washed.

They are working to find them and give the deceased a decent funeral, as they have done to others since Thursday.

"I have never seen such a flood in my life, but I am grateful that my family survived it," said Ramat Sulaiman, 65.

Ms. Suleiman's house was completely destroyed, leaving her family homeless.

She said 100 children who once slept at Quranic school "all washed away" two blocks from her home.

"It was a painful sight for me. The kids cried, but no one could do anything. As their cry became louder, the buildings sank and flowed out."

Her son Saliu is homeless and bankrupt.

"I lost at least $1,500 in flooding. That's the profit from the previous day's sale of the farm. I was going to go back to the room to get it, but the pressure of the water scared me."

"I also lost eleven bags of peanuts and seven beans. My wife and I couldn't pick anything from our room. But I'm grateful that we took it out on time. There were a lot of corpses in the water."

He said he has been having nightmares ever since.

“I was traumatized.”

Authorities have not confirmed whether the dam has broken down, exacerbating the impact of widely reported recent floods.

Mokwa District Chief Alhaji Muhammadu Shaba Aliyu told the BBC that there is a "reservoir" in the area that can overflow water in any rain, but he added that the flooding was too large.

Residents told BBC News that they believe the flood was not caused by the heavy rain they experienced.

"The rain cannot cause flooding because it has subsided and there is no water. I was outside and suddenly I saw water gushing out on the highway and spreading everything on its way."

Ms. Suleiman said: "When I woke up to pray, I opened the door and looked outside and couldn't see any water. After a while, I started to hear people screaming. We don't know where it came from. It's a mystery."

Mr. Adamu said: "For those who say the flood is rain, they are lying. The rain stops before the flood begins. No one knows the cause of the flood, it's just from God."

Mokwa local vice chairman Musa Alhaji Aliyu Kimboku also rejected the rainfall.

The National Emergency Management Agency said the injured were receiving treatment while the displaced victims were taken to relocated camps and relief materials.

The country's Meteorological Agency expects the rainy season to last up to 200 days this year, while in most southern states it may last longer.

In early May, the federal government launched a flood propaganda campaign to educate citizens on flood risk.

There are 30 of the 36 states in West African countries at risk of flooding, and Niger is one of them.

When the victims save the new life they can begin from the ruins of the house, those who have lost loved ones like Mr. Adamu said that despite their acceptance of fate, they will never be cured.