The wholly encased portions of the northeastern part of Borno State, Nigeria, with flood, has degenerated thousands into vulnerabilities and having urgent needs. This flooding in turn, overburdens the State, which is already grappling with a dragging economy, climate disaster and displacement mostly caused by militancy.
The flooding is occurring anew in three decades of the State’s history. Reports say it exposes 15,541 pregnant women and up to 29,597 breastfeeding mothers to a terrible danger threatening their healthcare.
A report by the International Organization of Migration (IOM) says roughly all of the pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers mentioned are in urgent need of medical care and basic amenities.
Others are the 14,837 elderly and 447 persons with chronic illnesses, “requiring immediate and sustained access to healthcare services,” the report says.
Concerns have also been raised by humanitarian agencies on a possible outbreak of disease as the ebb menaces the health and safety of the displaced. It also pressures aid agencies and government resources, exacerbating an already critical humanitarian crisis.
The deluge, which authorities say affected about one million people, has had over 30 people killed, with more than 400,000 people displaced, most of whom are housed in camps without food and clean water, a Reuters report chronicles. Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says over 100,000 displaced live in overcrowded informal camps, further sparking worries.
The floods in Borno, the cradle of Boko Haram militants in the Lake Chad basin, started when Alau dam burst its walls following heavy rainfall that has also caused floods in Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Niger, all part of Africa’s Sahel region that usually receives little rain, a Reuters report, notes.
In the last two weeks of August, more than 1.5 million people were displaced across 12 countries in West and Central Africa due to floods, and about 465 have been killed, according to the United Nations humanitarian affairs office.
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Enoch Oyedibu
Brazen Investigative Journalist with a deep interest for tracking the grassroots impacts of government procurement.