Authorities in Borno State rush to supply shelter for residents displaced by the extreme flooding.
The collapse of a dam in northeast Nigeria has triggered extreme flooding, destroying 1000’s of properties and worsening a dire humanitarian disaster.
The flooding in Borno State has affected one million folks, the state governor mentioned on Wednesday, straining sources as authorities scramble to rescue residents and place them in momentary shelters.
Heavy rains had triggered a dam to overflow on Tuesday, decimating a state-owned zoo and washing crocodiles and snakes into flooded communities.
Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from Maiduguri in Nigeria, mentioned a “stream of individuals” are at the moment making their means out of areas coated by the floodwaters.
He mentioned civilians have been looking within the water with restricted diving tools to avoid wasting as many individuals as potential.
“We’ve seen useless our bodies arriving,” he mentioned, including {that a} profitable rescue operation noticed child twins saved from the floodwaters and moved to security.
Native officers mentioned it was the worst flooding within the state in twenty years, however authorities have but to announce deaths.
Idris reported that Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima visited folks displaced by the floods on Tuesday night and promised to supply them with meals, shelter and drugs. A day later, Idris mentioned that only a few provides had reached these folks.
Borno State governor Babagana Zulum visited Bakassi camp on Wednesday and instructed reporters that authorities had been assessing the injury and 1 / 4 of the state capital, Maiduguri, had been flooded.
“You possibly can see how water fully flooded the world, sewerages had been fully flooded, which means waterborne ailments could be transmitted,” Zulum instructed reporters whereas assembly affected residents.
The dam collapse is compounding a humanitarian disaster in Borno over the previous decade resulting from a revolt began by the Boko Haram armed group. The revolt, which has spilled throughout borders round Lake Chad, has killed greater than 35,000 folks, displaced 2.6 million others within the nation’s north-east area.
Bakassi camp used to deal with tens of 1000’s of people that had been displaced by the Boko Haram revolt. The camp had been closed final 12 months.
The Nationwide Emergency Administration Company mentioned that floods in Nigeria have killed 229 folks for the reason that begin of the 12 months.
In late August, flooding killed 49 folks and displaced 1000’s in three states – Jigawa, Adamawa and Taraba – after heavy rains within the nation’s northeast.
The worst flooding in latest occasions killed 600 folks in 2022.
