At least 60 communities have been submerged by recent flooding in Nasarawa, a state in central Nigeria, said an official of the local disaster management agency on Friday.

States within central Nigeria had been witnessing heavy floods since August, as a result of a localized high-intensity rainfall accompanied by torrential winds, and massive run-off activities in streams and rivers.

Allu Maga, head of the Nasarawa State Emergency Management Agency, told Xinhua that thousands of people had been displaced and valuables worth millions of naira were destroyed.

According to the official, the affected communities were those along the bank of River Benue. Local residents were earlier warned about the impending disaster but refused to leave as it was their ancestral lands, he said.

The state government has begun the distribution of relief materials to the affected people, Maga added.