Flood: UN allocates $6 million to Borno as WHO, others intervene

To cushion the impact of the recent flooding incidents on victims in Borno State, North-east Nigeria, the United Nations has allocated $6 million to the state from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund.

This amounts to N9.8 billion with the present exchange rate of N1,639 to 1 US dollar.

According to UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Fall, more funding is on the way to bring the total contribution to more than $8 million.

The National Information Officer of the UN Information Centre, Oluseyi Soremekun, announced the various interventions in a press statement on Sunday.

According to the statement, Mr Fall announced this allocation when he led officials of the global agency and non-governmental organisations on a visit to the conflict-ridden Borno State and met with the government officials and the victims of the flooding.

The groups, which also included the Nigeria Red Cross Society, visited the state on Saturday.

He said the funding is necessitated by the urgent need to save lives, even as the organisations pledged immediate support for the affected population.

Provision of food, sanitation

Mr Fall said the UN is responding to the crisis by providing hot meals, facilitating food airdrops in hard-to-reach areas cut off by flood waters, trucking water and providing water and sanitation hygiene services.

The statement also added that the UN has provided water purification tablets to stem outbreaks of diseases, such as acute watery diarrhoea and cholera, while also providing hygiene kits for women and girls, and shelter services.

To provide life assistance to persons affected by the flood, the United Nations has promised continuous provision of aid and the mobilisation of additional resources.

Mr Fall said the widespread impact of the floods in Maiduguri Mretropolitan Council (MMC) and Jere LGA requires immediate response by the UN and partners in support of government efforts.

He said, “I witnessed firsthand the devastation and untold hardship caused by the flooding, including the destruction of homes, businesses, and infrastructure. I also saw the suffering of affected communities.

“The flood-affected people are experiencing a crisis within a crisis with the floods occurring at the height of a severe food insecurity and malnutrition crisis.”

WHO’s interventions

Similarly, the World Health Organisation (WHO) deployed four mobile clinics to IDP camps and provided essential medicines and medical supplies, including Interagency Emergency Health Kits (IEHKs) and malaria treatments, as part of its immediate response.

The WHO Representative in Nigeria, Walter Mulombo, also said the agency is working to enhance the state’s capacity to rapidly detect and respond to disease outbreaks within the camps

Mr Mulombo pledged the organisation’s support to those affected while also expressing deep concern over the impact of the disaster on the lives of the affected population, especially the most vulnerable – women, children, and the elderly.

However, he affirmed that WHO would continue to provide critical technical and operational support to mitigate the health impacts of the floods.

“We are shocked by the scale of the disaster, but we are here to assess the needs and support both the state and federal governments in addressing the challenges posed by this sudden emergency,” he said.

Flooding caused by collapsed dam?

The severe flooding in Borno killed at least 30 people and affected more than one million others according to the state government.

The incident, multiple sources confirmed, was caused by the collapse of the Alau dam on the Ngadda River in the state on Tuesday. This is the worst flooding the state has ever experienced since the dam collapsed 30 years ago.

Publications by media organisations and environmentalists have linked the collapse of the dam to the negligence of the state government.

For instance, an investigation by HumAngle showed that the state government has failed to fix the damaged parts of the dam despite several allocations for the “rehabilitation of the Alau Dam” between 2018 and 2022 and multiple warnings from environmentalists around the region.

The report stated that the state government ignored the warnings and insisted that the state was not under any threat of flood as it had carried out its assessment.

The spokesperson of the National Emergency Management Agency, Ezekiel Manzo, put the death toll at 30. The UN also puts the total numbers of displaced persons at 414,000.

Also, about 300,000 people have been registered by the Emergency Operations Centre of the Borno State Government in relocation sites mainly in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC), Jere and Konduga local government areas.

IDP camps that initially closed have been reopened to accommodate people displaced by the floods.

The cost of food staples and other living essentials have also skyrocketed due to the loss of several farmlands and the destruction of the city’s central market.

In what appears to be an unfol humanitarian disaster, many communities at least 10 states, including Jigawa, have been impacted by flood in varying degrees.

As of last week, Governor Usman Nnadi said Jigawa State had recovered 36 deaths as a result of floods which, he said, had displaced 15,755 persons in the state.