Flood risk hangs over Nigeria

By the Climate Centre

(The IFRC has now launched an emergency appeal for Nigeria for 10 million Swiss francs to enable the Nigerian Red Cross Society to assist 400,000 people affected by these devastating floods.)

IFRC-DREF has issued a second humanitarian cash grant to the Nigerian Red Cross Society for the seasonal floods that have caused widespread devastation in several states – mainly across the north and centre of the country that is part of the Sahel climate zone.

A week of “continuous heavy rainfall” led to widespread devastation and displacement in Bauchi, Sokoto and Zamfara states especially, the IFRC said, and the NRCS is using an initial grant of just over 230,000 Swiss francs issued earlier this month to assist 9,000 affected people.  

More recently last week, a 220,000 Swiss franc grant from the IFRC-DREF’s anticipatory pillar for Adamawa came after the Global Flood Awareness System indicated a threshold flood-risk in the north-east state and the NRCS activated its simplified EAP.

The National Society will now support a further 7,500 people with cash relief, community advocacy on risk reduction, climate adaptation and recovery, and media-based awareness-raising.

This year’s floods have affected several states “far more severely than in previous years, highlighting a growing crisis [while] the scale of destruction is unprecedented,” worsening an already difficult economic situation, the IFRC adds.

People in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, for example, woke up last week to find their homes flooded and as much as half the city submerged, the NRCS said on Twitter/X.

Thousands were displaced and families “trudged miles to safer ground” (photo). “Against the odds, we stand with the residents of Maiduguri in their hour of need,” the NRCS added.

‘Preparedness is key in reducing
the impact of flooding’

The Climate Centre’s Ouagadougou-based scientist Kiswendsida Guigma said today: “This particularly wet situation extends to the wider Sahel region and was predicted by the regional climate outlook forum held back in May in Abuja.

“It follows an extraordinarily hot March-June pre-monsoon season earlier this year, and human-induced climate change is likely to have significantly worsened the situation, though further study is needed to quantify it precisely.”

Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency says 229 people have been killed by floods in Nigeria since the start of the year, according to media reports last week.

NEMA Director-General Zubaida Umar said: “We urge all residents, especially in vulnerable areas, to heed our warnings and take immediate preventive measures to safeguard lives and property. Preparedness is key in reducing the impact of flooding.”

The agency’s most recent (5 September) flood alert listed the states facing a “highly probability” of floods in the “next few weeks” as Benue, Kogi, Anambra, Delta, Imo, Rivers and Bayelsa, with the pattern or risk now extending southwards.

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 an estimated 465 have died, the UN says.

Nigerian Red Cross volunteers assist elderly people to safety through floodwater in Maiduguri earlier this month. IFRC-DREF has now issued two humanitarian grants, one of them for anticipatory action, as the flood risk extends over a wider area of Nigeria. (Photo: NRCS)