September 11, 2024

Floods that swept through Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state have affected up to 1 million people, the state governor said on Wednesday, as authorities scrambled to rescue residents and put them in temporary shelters.

The floods began when a dam overflowed following heavy rains, decimating a state-owned zoo and washing crocodiles and snakes into flooded communities.

Local officials said it was the worst flooding in the state in two decades.

Authorities have yet to release casualty figures.

Borno state governor Babagana Zulum visited Bakassi camp on Wednesday and told reporters that authorities were assessing the damage and a quarter of state capital Maiduguri had been flooded.

“You can see how water completely flooded the area, sewerages were completely flooded, that means waterborne diseases would be transmitted,” Zulum told reporters while meeting affected residents.

“The population affected is up to 1 million.”

Bakassi camp used to house tens of thousands of people who were displaced by a 15-year insurgency that was started by Islamist group Boko Haram. The camp was shut last year.

The National Emergency Management Agency says 229 people have been killed by floods in Nigeria since the start of the year. The worst flooding in recent times killed 600 people in 2022.

REUTERS