To cushion the impact of the recent floods on victims in Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, the United Nations has allocated $6 million to the State of Nigeria Humanitarian Fund.
This is equivalent to N9.8 billion at the current exchange rate of N1,639 per US dollar.
According to the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Fall, more funds are being sent to bring the total contribution to more than $8 million.
The UN Information Centre's National Information Officer, Oluseyi Soremekun, announced the various interventions in a press statement on Sunday.
According to the statement, Mr Fall announced the assignment when he led officials from the global agency and non-governmental organisations on a visit to conflict-ravaged Borno state and met with government officials and flood victims.
The groups, which also included the Nigerian Red Cross, visited the state on Saturday.
He said the funding was needed because of the urgent need to save lives, although the organisations promised immediate support to the affected population.
Article page with promotion of financial support
Food supply, sanitation
Mr Fall said the UN is responding to the crisis by providing hot meals, facilitating airdrops of food into hard-to-reach areas cut off by flood waters, trucking in water and providing hygiene and water and sanitation services.
The statement also added that the UN has provided water purification tablets to curb disease outbreaks such as acute watery diarrhea and cholera, while providing hygiene kits for women and girls and shelter services.
To provide life-saving assistance to people affected by the floods, the United Nations has pledged to continue providing aid and mobilizing additional resources.
Mr Fall said the widespread impact of the flooding in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) and Jere Local Government requires an immediate response from the UN and its partners in support of the government’s efforts.
He said: “I witnessed first-hand the devastation and untold hardship caused by the floods, including the destruction of homes, businesses and infrastructure. I also saw the suffering of the affected communities.
“People affected by the floods are experiencing a crisis within a crisis, as the floods come at the height of a severe food insecurity and malnutrition crisis.”
WHO Interventions
Similarly, the World Health Organization (WHO) deployed four mobile clinics to IDP camps and provided essential medicines and medical supplies, including Inter-Agency Emergency Health Kits (IEHKs) and anti-malaria treatments, as part of its immediate response.
WHO representative in Nigeria Walter Mulombo also said the agency is working to improve the state's capacity to quickly detect and respond to disease outbreaks within the camps.
Mr. Mulombo pledged the organization's support to those affected, while expressing deep concern about the impact of the disaster on the lives of the affected population, especially the most vulnerable: women, children and the elderly.
However, he said WHO would continue to provide essential technical and operational support to mitigate the health impacts of the floods.
“We are shocked by the magnitude 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.
Floods caused by a dam collapse?
Severe flooding in Borno has killed at least 30 people and affected more than a million, according to the state government.
The incident, sources confirmed, was caused by the collapse of the Alau Dam on the Ngadda River in the state on Tuesday. It is the worst flooding the state has seen since the dam collapsed 30 years ago.
Media reports and environmentalists have linked the dam collapse to state government negligence.
For instance, a HumAngle investigation showed that the state government has failed to repair the damaged parts of the dam despite several allocations for the “rehabilitation of Alau Dam” between 2018 and 2022 and multiple warnings from environmentalists in the region.
The report said the state government ignored warnings and insisted the state was not under any threat of flooding as it had conducted its assessment.
National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Ezequiel Manzo put the death toll at 30. The UN also puts the total number of displaced at 414,000.
Additionally, the Borno State Government Emergency Operations Centre has registered about 300,000 people in relocation sites, mainly in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC), Jere and Konduga local government areas.
Internally displaced persons camps that were initially closed have been reopened to accommodate people displaced by the floods.
The cost of basic food and other life essentials has also skyrocketed due to the loss of several farmlands and the destruction of the city's central market.
In what appears to be an ongoing humanitarian disaster, many communities in at least 10 states, including Jigawa, have been affected by flooding to varying degrees.
Last week, Governor Usman Nnadi said Jigawa State had recovered 36 deaths as a result of the floods which he said had displaced 15,755 people in the state.