内容摘要：Palestinians have long known that no Israeli or US-backed aid initiative would truly help them. They know that a dignified life cannot be sustained with food packages distributed in concentration camp-like facilities. Karamah – the Arabic word for dignity that encompasses honour, respect, and agency – cannot be air-dropped or handed out at checkpoints where people wait in metal lanes like cattle.

Palestinians have long known that no Israeli or US-backed aid initiative would truly help them. They know that a dignified life cannot be sustained with food packages distributed in concentration camp-like facilities. Karamah – the Arabic word for dignity that encompasses honour, respect, and agency – cannot be air-dropped or handed out at checkpoints where people wait in metal lanes like cattle.

At least 3,018 people have been displaced, while 265 houses were “completely destroyed” in the floods, he said, adding that many victims were believed to have been swept down the Niger River, warning that the toll could still rise.President Bola Tinubu extended his condolences overnight and said search-and-rescue operations were ongoing with the support of Nigeria’s security forces.

“Relief materials and temporary shelter assistance are being deployed without delay,” he wrote in a post on social media.“We lost everything, the families. We don’t have anywhere else to go, the property has gone,” Mohammed Tanko, a local, told Al Jazeera. “We lost at least 15 from this house.”Another survivor said: “I escaped with only my nightdress. Right now, I can’t even identify where our home used to be.”

“The grim task of recovering bodies and what little the residents and victims of this disaster can is what’s been going on since we arrived here in the early afternoon,” said Idris, standing in front of a dilapidated house as children and adults alike dig for belongings and bodies.“When we arrived here, we were told by locals that when the floodwaters started coming in Mokwa, more bodies were flowing in from more villages upstream and so this used to be where homes were. Several homes, over 300 of them, were washed away or completely destroyed by the flood waters,” said Idris, as clothes and residents’ other belongings lied scattered in piles across the ground.

Residents believe that the floods may have been caused by “a bigger problem upstream, maybe a dam burst, but up to now officials are not confirming that”, said Idris. “But the amount of water that came into this community is so much that nobody had any time to prepare to evacuate.”

Meteorologists warn that more rain is expected in the coming days, raising fears of further flooding across the region.In the years that followed, the church recruited members from different locations across the country. Juma said congregants were not from around the area, spoke different languages, and never left the compound to go to their own homes.

According to Caren Kiarie, a human rights activist from neighbouring Kisumu County, the church has several branches across the Kenyan Nyanza region, and sends members from one location to the other.Many people came to worship and live within the church full time, Opapo villagers remember.

“They were very friendly people who did business around the Opapo area and interacted well with the people here,” Juma said. “But they would never live outside the church, as they all went back inside in the evening. Within the church compound, they had cattle, sheep, poultry and planted crops for their food.”Though the worshippers could interact with outsiders, locals say the children living there – some with their parents and others who neighbours said were taken in alone – never attended school, while members were barred from seeking medical care if they were sick.