NE Nigeria flooding affects over 400,000 people: UN

Priority needs for the more than 400,000 victims of northeast Nigeria flooding are food assistance, potable water, hygiene, sanitation and shelter, UN humanitarians said on Monday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said a joint mission of the heads of UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Nigeria Red Cross Society visited Maiduguri over the weekend and met with affected people and government officials. Many people they met needed aid before the floods, having been displaced multiple times by conflict and insecurity. Maiduguri is the capital and largest city in Borno state.

The office said there is an urgent need for protection activities to reduce the risk of gender-based violence and to protect unaccompanied children. OCHA said local authorities reported that 300,000 temporarily displaced people have been registered since the Sept. 9 collapse of the Alau Dam. Access remains restricted as two significant bridges in Maiduguri, among other critical infrastructure, have partially collapsed. “In support of government efforts, the United Nations and humanitarian partners are responding by providing hot meals, facilitating food air drops in hard-to-reach areas cut off by flood waters and trucking water,” the office said. “We are also providing water and sanitation hygiene services, as well as water purification tablets to stem outbreaks of diseases. This in addition to supplying hygiene and dignity kits for women and girls, as well as emergency health and shelter services.”

The world body is also involved in joint assessments with the government to continue to adapt the response as needed. OCHA said the UN humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Malick Fall, announced a 6-million-U.S.-dollar allocation from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund and that it is also working closely with donors to secure additional funds. “More resources and funding are needed, not only during this emergency lifesaving phase, but also in the recovery period when people who have lost everything will need sustained support to get back on their feet,” the office said.

OCHA said flooding across Nigeria had damaged more than 125,000 hectares of farmland just before the harvests when 32 million people face severe food insecurity. “In Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states alone, 4.8 million people are experiencing severe food insecurity, with the lives of 230,000 children threatened by severe acute malnutrition,” the office said.

“Crop losses are alarming given the already skyrocketing prices of staple food, such as maize, beans, sorghum and millet, the prices of which have more than tripled over the past year due to record food inflation.” – – -RSS