The United Nation’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohammed Fall, on Tuesday, announced the sum of 6 million dollars from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund to support flood victims in Borno State in northern Nigeria.
Thousands of residents of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State were displaced on September 10 when the Alau Dam, located about 10 miles to the south of Maiduguri collapsed.
The UN spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, told a news conference on Monday in New York, that a joint mission comprising UN agencies and NGOs, alongside the Nigeria Red Cross Society, visited the main city of Maiduguri over the weekend.
Dujarric said that they met with people who had been impacted – many of them had already been displaced multiple times by conflicts and insecurity in the area.
“We and our partners are providing them with hot meals, we are facilitating air drops of food in hard-to-reach areas cut off by flood waters, and we are also trucking in water.
“We are also providing water and sanitation hygiene services and water purification tablets to stem disease outbreaks.
“This is in addition to supplying hygiene and dignity kits to women and girls, as well as emergency health and shelter services,” the Punch newspaper, which monitored the press briefing quoted Dujarric as saying.
It added that Dujarric said that the staff of the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs were also working closely with donors to secure additional funding.
Across Nigeria, flooding has damaged more than 125,000 hectares of farmland and that was just before the harvest time, and at a time when 32 million people in the country are facing severe food insecurity.
The report also said that Emmanuel Bigenimana, the head of the World Food Programme office in Maiduguri, had earlier said that he managed to fly over the city in a UN Humanitarian Air Service helicopter dispatched by WFP, to conduct a rapid assessment of damage and needs.
“What I have seen is really heartbreaking,” describing homes, infrastructure, roads, schools, hospitals submerged by water.
“Many, many people – I’m talking about over 200,000 – 300,000 displaced people are overcrowded in several IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps and also on the streets,” he said.
GIK/APA