In Nigeria's food basket state, floods wash away homes, crops and hope

People gather around a rice milling machine beside the Wuruku rice mill market after a flood displaced millers from the market in Makurdi, Nigeria, October 1, 2022. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

MAKURDI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Victoria Okonkwo sits in a canoe as neighbours paddle her away from her house in Nigeria's food basket, Benue state, which is now under water – along with more than 100,000 hectares (247,100 acres) of farmland.

"It was last week that it started, so I left thinking that the water will not be this much," Okonkwo, 45, told Reuters. "Now I am displaced with my children."