ABUJA, Nigeria — Over the weekend, a building collapse in a suburban part of Nigeria’s capital resulted in at least seven fatalities, according to local officials. On Monday, Nkechi Isa, a representative from the Abuja city emergency services, announced, “We have called off search and rescue because we excavated and there was nobody left in the rubble.”

Incidents of building collapses have become increasingly frequent in Nigeria, with more than a dozen occurrences reported in the past two years. Local authorities typically attribute these accidents to inadequate enforcement of building safety regulations and lack of proper maintenance.

The recent collapse, which took place in the Sabon-Lugbe area, involved a structure that had already undergone partial demolition. The building’s integrity was further weakened by scavengers searching for scrap metal, as noted in an Abuja police statement released on Sunday.

Police spokesperson Josephine Adeh indicated that five individuals were successfully rescued from the debris. According to data from the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, the country recorded 22 building collapses between January and July of this year, highlighting a troubling trend.

Earlier in July, another tragic event occurred when a two-story school building collapsed in north-central Nigeria, resulting in the deaths of 22 students. The incident at Saints Academy in the Busa Buji community in Plateau state happened shortly after many of the students, some only 15 years old or younger, had arrived for their classes.

As the number of such accidents continues to rise, concerns regarding building safety regulations and enforcement have become more pressing among experts and citizens alike. Officials and residents are calling for more significant attention to be paid to the structural integrity of buildings in Nigeria to prevent future tragedies.