Over 600 lives have been lost in major flooding in Nigeria.
Nigeria had recently experience the worst flooding the country has seen in over a decade. The flood, which has affected several areas in the country’s south, has claimed over 600 lives. The country’s humanitarian affairs ministry tweeted about it on Sunday.
The ministry revealed that the flooding affected more than 2 million people in the country. It also revealed that over 200,000 homes have been destroyed or partially damaged by the floods. Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency had warned of catastrophic flooding earlier in the month.
NEMA noted that three of the country’s overfilled reservoirs were expected to overflow. They noted that the flooding would be contributed to by the release of excess water from a dam in Cameron.
Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar Farouq, shared a warning that more flooding was expected. He urged regional governments to prepare accordingly.
In a shared tweet on Sunday, the humanitarian affairs ministry shared, “We are calling on the respective State Governments, Local Government Councils and Communities to prepare for more flooding by evacuating people living on flood plains to high grounds, provide tents and relief materials, fresh water as well as medical supplies for a possible outbreak of water-borne diseases,”
The Ministry also shared that relief has gone to every state and revealed that “many state governments did not prepare for the floods.”
