Weeks of relentless flooding have claimed nearly 200 lives in Nigeria, leaving widespread destruction in their wake, as homes and farmlands have been swept away.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed that 185 people have died, and 208,000 have been displaced across 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states.
The floods, which have wreaked havoc, particularly in the northern regions, are posing a severe threat to food security.
NEMA attributes the disaster to poor infrastructure and the neglect of essential dams, which have been ill-maintained over the years. The agency has urgently ramped up efforts to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people to temporary shelters as floodwaters continue to rise.
Nigeria faces flooding every year, primarily due to inadequate infrastructure and the consistent failure to adhere to environmental guidelines. In 2022, the country witnessed its worst flooding in a decade, with over 600 people losing their lives and more than 1 million displaced.
While last year’s floods were driven by unusually heavy rainfall, this year’s devastation is largely a result of human activities.
Human Activities Worsening Floods
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency had predicted that rainfall this year would either be delayed or fall within normal ranges across most parts of the country.
However, Ibrahim Wasiu Adeniyi, head of the central forecasting unit, emphasized that human behavior is exacerbating the situation.
“What we are doing is causing this climate change, so there is a shift from the normal,” Adeniyi stated. He cited the indiscriminate dumping of refuse and the construction of houses along waterways without proper approvals as significant contributors to the disaster.
As the floodwaters surge toward the central and southern states, the Nigerian disaster response agency has issued a dire warning: the flooding is expected to worsen in the coming weeks. “People in flood-prone areas need to evacuate now … because we don’t have time any longer,” said NEMA spokesperson Manzo Ezekiel.
In Jigawa state, the worst-hit area, the impact of the floods has been described as “devastating.” The state has recorded 37 deaths so far, and local authorities are converting public buildings and schools into makeshift shelters for the displaced.
Nura Abdullahi, head of emergency services in Jigawa, highlighted the urgency of the situation, as many residents are left without homes or livelihoods.
The floods have decimated 107,000 hectares of farmland, particularly in the northern states, which are among the hardest hit. These regions are crucial to Nigeria’s agricultural output, and the destruction of farmland has only deepened the country’s food crisis.
Many farmers in northern Nigeria have already faced significant challenges, including decreasing access to essential farming inputs due to economic hardships and violent attacks that have driven them from their lands.
As a result, Nigeria now has the highest number of people facing acute hunger in the world, with 32 million citizens — representing 10% of the global burden — struggling to find enough to eat, according to the U.N. food agency.
In Zamfara state’s Gummi council area, local resident Abdullahi Gummi described how the floods have destroyed his family’s farmlands, which were their primary source of income. “We spent around 300,000 naira ($188) on planting, but everything is gone,” Gummi lamented, capturing the despair felt by many in the flood-stricken regions.
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