Nigeria Floods Kill Hundreds and Displace Over a Million
Nigeria on Friday reported that 500 people have been killed in floods that ravaged some of its most populated areas in the past several days, displacing over a million people.
The nation’s state-run broadcaster, NBS, reported that more than 1,000 people have died in the flooding the past week, including 1,300 in the state of Katsina, which is the largest in terms of area and population, with a population of 1.05 million people, or about 15.8 percent of Nigeria’s population. Hundreds more have been reported missing.
The floods, which began last Wednesday in the north of the country, began as rainwater from a thunderstorm overran a canal and swelled into a storm that caused a river to overflow.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the flooding, saying he has requested the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to send a boat to assist the victims.
“We are praying for the country,” he told a briefing Friday. “What I can tell you are two things. First of all I have asked U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to send a boat to the areas affected.”
Jonathan said he has also asked the Nigerian Red Cross to send medical and food supplies to affected areas.
The flooding began about two days earlier in the country’s southern capital, Abuja. In Katsina state, which has a population of 1.06 million people or about 12 percent of Nigeria’s population, more than 600 people have been killed and some 20,000 have been displaced.
Two hundred people also were killed in the northern states of Cross River and Kogi, and as many as 650 people in Zamfara state.
The U.N.’s refugee agency, UNHCR, has also been assisting those displaced by the flooding, which has displaced some 200,000 people.
Nigeria is considered one of the poorest countries in the world and is frequently prone to catastrophic flooding and drought.
In the past several years its rain-soaked crops have become more susceptible to the devastating effects of the storms. And as the rains recede, its crops may not get enough water to grow in the following dry season.
The floods are also likely to be accompanied by widespread floods after rains in